Unsurprisingly, Avatar 2 had a successful opening weekend, shattering one of Spider-Man: No Way Home‘s post-pandemic records.
Avatar 2 is a new contender as Black Panther: Wakanda Forever approaches the pinnacle of its run. Director James Cameron has a lot to live up to after helming the most financially successful film of all time, and anticipation is at an all-time high thanks to an eye-popping trailer and marketing campaign.
Even though the theatre business has obviously suffered since the pandemic, films like Top Gun 2 and No Way Home showed that records can still be broken and films can still be wildly popular. Can Avatar 2 accomplish the same? After breaking one record, things appear to be going well.
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Avatar 2 dominates the opening weekend box office
Avatar: The Way of Water has broken a record previously held by Spider-Man: No Way Home, according to box office expert Luiz Fernando, who posted about it on Twitter.
Avatar 2 surpassed No Way Home’s $67.2M and Doctor Strange 2’s $53.6M to earn $76.7M overseas on its Friday opening, surpassing its $53M domestic total and passing it to become the most successful movie of the post-pandemic era.
Due to the strong start, the movie earned $127.1 million internationally and $180.1 million worldwide. The Way of Water is currently planning a $290-$300 million, 5-day overseas debut for a $415-$435 million global performance.
Despite these record-breaking international numbers, the domestic total of $53M, which includes $17M in previews, is a little disappointing. The sequel narrowly outperformed Top Gun: Maverick’s $52M debuts to rank as the 44th biggest domestic debut of all time and the 6th biggest Friday of the pandemic era.
Is Avatar 2 a success or a letdown?
Similar trends were observed in the first Avatar movie, of which only $749.7M of its $2.74B worldwide box office receipts originated in the United States. The remaining $2B came from other countries. So, whatever the reasons may be, it’s not all that surprising that the second enjoys a similar level of success with audiences around the world.
The anticipated $415–435 million global debut of the long-awaited sequel competes favorably with the $242.5 million ($336.5 million adjusted for inflation) of the 2009 debut. Only time will tell if The Way of Water has the same long legs that the first Avatar did, which allowed it to continue winning for weeks on end.
Fans shouldn’t expect Avatar 2 to outperform its predecessor, the highest-grossing movie ever, though. It might not even top No Way Home’s earnings, which debuted to a much higher global total of $587.2M, despite the fact that fans rushed to see it right away to avoid its Multiversal spoilers.
James Cameron and Disney hope that The Way of Water’s visual spectacle and brand recognition will be enough to keep it going for a long time. This is especially true given that the film can profit from the holiday season, much like the first did with its release in mid-December 2009.
After all, the movie doesn’t really have much significant competition in terms of massive blockbusters that are expected to dominate the box office until February’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Midway through January, M3GAN will undoubtedly make a splash with the horror crowd, but it won’t challenge Avatar 2’s dominance.
Since it was essential to reviving theatres, Spider-Man: No Way Home undoubtedly set many records for the post-pandemic era, but many of those will now start to be surpassed. The first significant threat to No Way Home’s hegemony, in terms of anticipation, is Avatar 2, and there will be more in the future.
No movie has yet managed to surpass the $2 billion mark since the pandemic started; Avengers: Endgame was the most recent; No Way Home came the closest with $1.9 billion. It remains to be seen if The Way of Water will have the staying power to be the next big thing, but this debut shows promise that it could emulate the first film’s pattern of long-lasting success around the world.
Cameron needs this one to succeed after investing so much in the franchise, having already shot a nine-hour cut of Avatar 3 and started early work on the fourth. These promising early results should almost certainly ensure that he will be given the go-ahead to move forward with these sequels, which will be good news for many.
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