Avatar: The Way of Water is one of the biggest box office successes of this decade which is not news if for a James Cameron film. Just like the box office success of the film, the budget too was a “James Cameron” in size. According to early reports, the budget of the sequel was around $460 million. To put this kind of money on a film which has no real guarantee of box office success is insane. I know the first Avatar is the biggest film of all time and a sequel to it should do we as well. But it was not so easy as the sequel came out 13 years after the first one. Moreover, when you have an astronomical budget it is very difficult to recover the money. Given that Avatar’s success was unprecedented and the exact reason for it is not known this was a huge risk going in.
Cameron had mentioned many times before the film released that the Avatar sequel was probably the worst deal in cinema history. After the success of the film, this statement seems an overreaction but a recent report revealed the total budget of Avatar: The Way of Water was insanely high.
Avatar: The Way of Water Is Costliest Film Ever!
To end the Deadline article series “2022 Most Valuable Blockbuster”, the outlet wrote about Avatar: The Way of Water which was the biggest blockbuster of 2022. Even with a total budget of more than $1 billion Avatar: The Way of Water was the most successful film that came out last year. Deadline revealed Avatar’s total expenses: The $1.087 billion total expenses come from production costs ($400 million), prints and ads ($400 million), video costs ($100 million), residuals ($40 million), interest and overheads ($72 million), and participation ($300 million).
The other Top 5 most expensive blockbusters from last year in Deadline’s article series can be seen below. For comparison purposes, Avatar 2 more than doubled the cost of the average MCU blockbuster:
- Top Gun: Maverick – $753.9 million
- Thor: Love and Thunder – $547 million
- Jurassic World: Dominion – $520.3 million
- Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness – $496 million
- Black Panther: Wakanda Forever – $491 million
Avatar 2 collected $2.32 billion worldwide with $683 million coming from the domestic market while $1.39 billion internationally, and $246 million from China, making it the third-highest-grossing movie ever and surpassing Avengers: Infinity War. After the exhibitors (theatre owners) took their cuts, Disney went home with $1.27 billion in profits from The Way of Water’s theatrical run. before generating a further $150 million from home entertainment sales and $200 million from television and streaming deals.
As I’d mentioned above Cameron was unsure whether his sequel will generate a profit as according to him, the film would have to be the third or fourth highest grossing of all time in order to generate profit given its humungous budget. Which means that the sequel should’ve grossed at least $1.5-$2 billion. Variety’s box office analysts had predicted the same. However, Deadline’s report proves that the threshold to turn a profit was $1.09 billion, around $400 million less.
Avatar: The Way of Water will soon start streaming on Disney+.
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