After remaining No. 1 at the box office for three weeks in a row, James Cameron's Avatar: The Way of Water has passed Top Gun: Maverick to become the highest-grossing movie of 2022.
According to the latest updates (via Deadline), the sci-fi sequel now sits at $1.5 billion worldwide, taking it just past Maverick's mighty $1.489 billion global haul.
Avatar 2 has also become the tenth top-grossing film of all time (it's expected to jump past The Avengers later today to claim the No. 9 spot), and the second-best of the pandemic era.
The Way of Water opened to a very positive critical response, but it's worth noting that the second wave of reviews were quite a bit more negative, and the movie's Rotten Tomatoes score has now slipped down to a still fairly respectable 77%. At any rate, the movie-going public don't seem too bothered by a slightly mixed reception - nor a butt-numbing 3 hour plus run-time - and the film is expected to continue packing them in well into 2023.
With Avatar: The Way of Water, the cinematic experience reaches new heights as Cameron transports audiences back to the magnificent world of Pandora in a spectacular and stirring action-packed adventure. Set more than a decade after the events of the first film, Avatar: The Way of Water begins to tell the story of the Sully family (Jake, Neytiri, and their kids), the trouble that follows them, the lengths they go to keep each other safe, the battles they fight to stay alive, and the tragedies they endure.
Directed by James Cameron and produced by Cameron and Jon Landau, the Lightstorm Entertainment Production stars Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang and Kate Winslet. Screenplay by James Cameron & Rick Jaffa & Amanda Silver. Story by James Cameron & Rick Jaffa & Amanda Silver & Josh Friedman & Shane Salerno. David Valdes and Richard Baneham serve as the film’s executive producers.
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