After a start that was sluggish to say the least, the momentum has truly picked up for James Cameron’s long-delayed Avatar sequel. Carrying forward a 2022 trend of revival for older franchises, the film has accelerated its performance massively in the opening weeks of 2023, managing to bust some box office records and take a spot on the Top 10 movies of all-time list. Blake & Wang P.A entertainment lawyer, Brandon Blake, fills us in.
7th of the Top 10
Now sitting at a global performance of $1.7B (and looking like it might feasibly reach the $2B needed to break even), Avatar: The Way of Water has blazed passed the 2019 The Lion King and 2015 Jurassic World to claim the number 7 spot on the top 10 for best performing pictures of all time.
A remarkable $1.19B of this comes from the international box office, which has also made the sci-fi infused fantasy epic the highest-grossing overseas release of the pandemic era. This unseats Top Gun: Maverick, although Top Gun retains the title of 2022’s best performer- much of Avatar’s growth has come in the early weeks of 2023. This also pushes it into the To 5 offshore titles, behind only Titanic, Endgame and Infinity Wars from the Avengers franchise, and the original Avatar movie.
Boosting Sluggish Box Offices
No doubt the wider market is pleased to have Avatar 2 running currently, because there isn’t much else to dethrone it. This past weekend saw a 30% drop on the last frame recorded, with only the Puss in Boots spinoff and M3GAN offering any sort of competition at all.
For Avatar 2, China, Germany, France, Korea, and the UK remain its strongest international markets. Interestingly, it’s also become IMAX’s fourth biggest release ever. With some hope of at least breaking even for this massive movie undertaking now on the cards, we bet James Cameron is pleased.
Film and Television 