Avatar: The Way of Water's opening weekend may not have broken records, though the same could actually be said for 2009's Avatar. However, like its predecessor, the sequel is proving to have real legs. Interest in the movie has only increased since it first splashed down in theaters last month, and the 3D blockbuster is now nearing $1.9 billion at the worldwide box office.
Deadline (via SFFGazette.com) reports that the sequel was estimated to have reached $1.894 billion by Sunday evening, with it set to pass Spider-Man: No Way Home's $1.921 billion global haul imminently (we're still waiting on updated figures so it may well have already done so).
The Spider-Man threequel was credited for saving theaters in 2021, though we've since seen that, in the wake of the pandemic, moviegoers will only show up to watch movies they really want to see. For example, Top Gun: Maverick smashed records last year, whereas Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Thor: Love and Thunder, and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever all failed to hit $1 billion.
Avatar: The Way of Water will become the sixth biggest movie of all time once it passes Spider-Man: No Way Home, with Avengers: Infinity War and Star Wars: The Force Awakens up next.
Whether it can beat Titanic remains to be seen, though we don't anticipate the follow-up reaching Avengers: Endgame and Avatar. A Chinese release has definitely helped Avatar: The Way of Water and it is, without a doubt, a big enough hit for Disney to give James Cameron the green light to move forward with his planned sequels.
"Avatar: The Way of Water’s epic visuals are impossible to find fault with," we said in our review last month, "but with a paper-thin, painfully boring story and little in the way of character development, this three-hour snoozefest is all style, no substance."
Avatar: The Way of Water is still playing in theaters. There's no word on a Disney+ debut quite yet, though we anticipate Disney waiting as long as possible (similar to Black Panther: Wakanda Forever). especially with it doing numbers like this from week to week.
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