Avatar: The Way of Water is the sequel to the highest grossing film of all time- Avatar. James Cameron blew people’s minds in 2009 when he displayed his technical might. There is hardly a visionary like Cameron working in the film industry, Nolan comes very close because of his use of practical effects. Cameron had made no film after Avatar took over the world and became the highest grossing film of all time beating another Cameron film- Titanic. The first Avatar packed in a lot of heart and emotion with its insane, never seen before visuals. The screenplay of the film while bloated was supremely heartfelt. It has been a lot of time since we heard from Pandora. Cameron has an annoying habit of reinventing cinema or creating some new technology every time he touches a camera.
I was absolutely taken aback by the first Avatar, not by the effects, I mean I was but I expected that but along with the effects the way Cameron had weaved in an extremely emotional and heartfelt story of Pandora and its people was brilliant. Also, the protagonist of a film like Avatar has a threat of becoming one dimensional or stereotypical but Cameron managed to make him unique and fresh. Really, Avatar was a cinematic achievement like no other and so when Cameron spawned a sequel for it I was ready to be blown away once again. After 13 years years, finally I got to see the continuation of Pandora’s story and it was an experience like no other and seems like everyone has the same notion in them as the film has opened with massive numbers and is already breaking records.
Avatar: The Way of Water Has Left Spider-Man: No Way Home Behind!
Box Office Guru Luiz Fernando shared a tweet regarding Avatar: The Way of Water’s collections which stated that the sequel has already broken a record held by Spider-Man: No Way Home. The sequel grossed $53 Million domestically on Friday while the film raked $76.7 Million overseas. These numbers are better than No Way Home’s as it had only earned $67.2 Million overseas on its opening Friday while Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness had earned $53.6 Million. This makes the sequel the biggest Friday opening of the post pandemic era.
This impressive opening also means that the film earned a total of $127.1 Million international gross coupled with a $180.1 Million global result. The sequel is not looking for a $290M-$300M 5-day opening overseas, for a total global result of $415M-$435M. These numbers are great but if I’m being honest then despite these great numbers, this is an underwhelming start as it only places the movie on the 44th biggest domestic opening of all time and only the 6th biggest Friday of the pandemic era, just surpassing the $52M of Top Gun: Maverick.
Avatar 2 has to keep up with its insane budget and high expectations. James Cameron has mentioned many times that he’d only make the remaining Avatar movies if the Way of Water makes money. If we have to talk numbers then Cameron has said that the sequel has to make at least $2 Billion for the third film to happen. That is a huge number, no film has managed to get that number since Avengers: Endgame in 2019. Spider-Man: No Way Home came very close to it but still didn’t cross it.
So, if the sequel plans to pass this number it has to beat everything in the middle. The early box projections for the opening weekend of Cameron’s epic look extremely promising. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Avatar 2 is on its way to open at $150-$175 Million at the domestic box office, however, that is not the insane number. The sequel’s is said to open with $450-550 Million worldwide. This will make the Avatar sequel the biggest opening in the post pandemic era only second to Marvel’s Spider-Man: No Way Home which collected $583 Million in its opening weekend.
Marvel’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness also collected $449 Million which the sequel is set to surpass. One major reason for the sequel’s success is its China release. Reports claim that the China release is at least adding $100 Million to the Way of Water’s opening.
Watch the Official Trailer For Avatar 2: The Way of Water on YouTube:
Avatar: The Way of Water is slated to release on 16th December 2022.
If you have any questions regarding Avatar: The Way of Water, feel free to ask in the comments below. For more content, stay tuned. As usual, like, subscribe and share our articles as we here are trying to build a community of people High on Cinema!
