Avatar: The Way of Water Surprises With Better Than Expected Christmas Box Office

Avatar: The Way of Water has outperformed expectations headed out of the Christmas holiday. The four-day numbers for James Cameron’s epic have come in at $95.5 million. Internationally, the steam is still going strong. $1 billion at some point is all but assured because of this success across the world. Rogue One managed to net $96 million back in 2016, and The Way of Water almost got there in it’s 4-day weekend. Avatar‘s sequel actually passed $850 million recently too. If it can reach that lofty number by the end of the year, it would join the ranks of Top Gun: Maverick and Jurassic World Dominion as the only movies that have managed to reach $1 billion this year. Now, the watch for that milestone is on as the calendar draws to a close in 2022.

IMAX CEO Rich Gelfond said that the film’s prospects could help lift the theater system as a whole. “‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ is showing the strong endurance at the global box office we expected, particularly with its phenomenal performance internationally where several key markets grew their grosses over opening weekend,” Gelfond explained. “Our screens remain the destination of choice to experience this one-of-a-kind film.”

How Emotional is The Way of Water?

Zoe Saldana told Kevin McCarthy that people will be moved to tears by the movie. “He was finally able to crack that challenge,” Saldana noted. “That whole thing that you can’t imitate water virtually through performance capture. That was just a challenge that he had taken upon himself, and it took him years, and he did it. It’s powerful, it’s compelling. I can get choked up just talking about it. I was able to see just 20 minutes of the second installment right before the year ended last year and I was speechless…I was moved to tears. One thing nobody really knows about Jim is that Jim is also a big crier. He really has a heart of gold, and he is a firm man and he’s very focused, but he does have a very delicate heart which is why he protects it so much. I think he’s able to have an outlet through the stories that he creates and this story is going to be compelling.”

Disney delivered a fresh synopsis for the movie: “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 film stars Zoe Saldana, Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Cliff Curtis, Joel David Moore, CCH Pounder, Edie Falco, Jemaine Clement and Kate Winslet.” 

Have you seen Avatar 2 yet? Let us know in the comments down below!