Avatar: The Way Of Water Becomes James Cameron's Third $2 Billion Movie At The Worldwide Box Office
As of this weekend, only six movies have ever made more than $2 billion at the worldwide box office — and three of them were directed by James Cameron. Variety confirmed that "Avatar: The Way of Water" has passed the major milestone in its sixth weekend at the box office, following news earlier this week that 3D screenings (and the associated premium ticket prices) have been a driving force behind the movie's financial success.
Thanks to a re-release ahead of the sequel, "Avatar" recently reclaimed its place as the highest-grossing movie of all time, a throne that had briefly been taken by "Avengers: Endgame." With the current global gross for "Avatar" standing at $2.923 billion, it would only take one more victory lap in theaters to make it the first movie to hit the $3 billion mark.
Others in the elite $2 billion club include Cameron's romance-driven disaster movie "Titanic," "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," and "Avengers: Infinity War." The fact that the non-Cameron movies didn't have the weight of firmly established franchises like "Star Wars" and the Marvel Cinematic Universe behind them only solidifies the director's status as a force to be reckoned with, and retroactively justifies (from a business standpoint, at least) the 13 years and hundreds of millions of dollars it took to bring "Avatar: The Way of Water" to screens.
What's in a number?
From a numbers standpoint, of course, there's not much difference between a movie that makes $1,999,999,999 at the box office and a movie that makes $2 billion. But both executives and shareholders are governed by a certain love of arbitrary milestones, and that round number looks very nice on a quarterly earnings report. If "Avatar 4" and "Avatar 5" weren't already formally greenlit by Disney, they certainly will be now.
Reports on the budget for "Avatar: The Way of Water" vary, with estimates topping out at $460 million, and are complicated by the fact that it was shot back-to-back with "Avatar 3" and parts of "Avatar 4." Per Variety, analysts speculate that the movie broke even at around the $1.5 billion mark, while Cameron himself set the benchmark for success even higher: "You have to be the third or fourth highest-grossing film in history."
Currently in sixth place, "The Way of Water" still needs to overtake "Avengers: Infinity War" ($2.052 billion) and "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" ($2.071 billion) before it hits Cameron's stated goal. Based on its current momentum, it will probably do so before next weekend ... and then keep going. The path is pretty clear of competition until "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" arrives in mid-February.
When Disney first acquired 20th Century Fox, much of the discussion was focused on the unlocked potential to bring the X-Men into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But with the previously Fox-owned characters yet to make a proper debut in the MCU, "Avatar" is the first franchise to visibly offer big returns on Disney's $71.3 billion purchase.