Avatar: The Way of Water beat ‘The Avengers’ to become the 10th highest grosser of all time in the US.
LOS ANGELES: Filmmaker James Cameron’s ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ raked in $623.5 million at the domestic box office, beating ‘The Avengers’ ($623.4 million) to become the 10th-highest-grossing US domestic release.
With ‘The Way of Water’ in the top 10, the race to top the sci-fi tentpole list is ‘Jurassic World’ (No. 9 with $653 million), ‘Titanic’ (No. 8 with $659 million. ) and ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ ($678 7 with millions), reports ‘Variety’.
Worldwide, ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ is the fourth biggest movie in history with $2.128 billion. It is behind only ‘Avatar’ ($2.92 billion), ‘Avengers: Endgame’ ($2.7 billion) and ‘Titanic’ ($2.19 billion) in terms of worldwide ticket sales.
Thanks to stratospheric enthusiasm among international audiences, ‘The Way of Water’ became the second fastest film to cross $2 billion after ‘Avengers: Endgame’.
It grossed $1.5 billion at the international box office, making it the fourth-biggest overseas release. Outside of North America, top grossing territories include China ($238 million), France ($137 million), Germany ($125 million) and Korea ($103 million).
The long-delayed 2009 film ‘Avatar’ opened on the big screen in December. Like the original, ticket sales were fueled by Imax and 3D screens, as well as repeat customers across all ages and demographics.
Disney, which owns the ‘Avatar’ rights after buying 20th Century Fox in 2019, spent about $460 million to produce and promote ‘The Way of Water’, one of the most expensive films ever made.
The third ‘Avatar’ installment is set to debut in December 2024, with plans for a fourth and fifth installment in the coming years. Zoe Saldana and Sam Worthington star in an otherworldly drama about family, Hereditary.