James Cameron‘s high-profile follow-up is raking in big bucks at the holiday box office, making up for a weaker-than-expected debut earlier this month.
The global gross for Avatar: The Way of Water, which was $1.17 billion, was outstanding on Thursday.
At the year-end Christmas box office, the 20th Century and Disney film is doing phenomenal midweek business. The Way of Water made an additional $67.9 million on Thursday alone, with $20 million coming from North America (the largest Thursday of the year) and $47.9 million coming from abroad.
On Tuesday, the 14th day since its release, James Cameron‘s high-budget sequel surpassed the $1 billion mark worldwide. It is the first movie to do so since Spider-Man: No Way Home, which came out in December 2021, and just the sixth overall to accomplish that feat within the first two weeks of release.
The Way of Water may have started this month off behind expectations, but it is making up ground swiftly.
When promoting the movie, Cameron stated that it would need to gross in the $2 billion level to be deemed successful (reports indicate that the breakeven point is at $1.4 billion). According to reports, The Way of Water is one of the most costly films ever filmed, with a production budget of more than $400 million and marketing costs totaling at least $600 million. Additionally, it lasts three hours and twelve minutes, while the original Avatar did it for an hour less.
Known for bucking the odds, Cameron. He has disproved his critics twice in the last 25 years when Titanic and Avatar respectively became the highest-grossing movies of all time globally.
Avatar had a relatively modest $77 million opening in December 2009 and went on to earn $2.92 billion worldwide (that includes rereleases).
