While Avatar: The Way of Water's opening weekend didn't break records (the same could be said for 2009's Avatar), the sequel is proving to have real legs. Interest in the movie has only increased since it first splashed down in theaters last month, and the 3D blockbuster is now nearing $1.9 billion.
Deadline reports that it's estimated to have reached $1.894 billion by yesterday evening, with it set to pass Spider-Man: No Way Home's $1.921 billion global haul in the next couple of days.
That movie was credited for saving theaters in 2021, though we've since seen that, in the wake of the pandemic, moviegoers will only turn out to see movies they really want to see. For example, Top Gun: Maverick smashed records last year, whereas Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Thor: Love and Thunder, and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever all failed to hit $1 billion.
Avatar: The Way of Water will become the sixth biggest movie of all time once it passes Spider-Man: No Way Home, with Avengers: Infinity War and Star Wars: The Force Awakens up next.
Whether it can beat Titanic remains to be seen, though we don't anticipate the follow-up reaching Avengers: Endgame and Avatar. A Chinese release has definitely helped Avatar: The Way of Water and it is, without a doubt, successful enough for Disney to give James Cameron the green light to move forward with his planned sequels.
"Avatar: The Way of Water’s epic visuals are impossible to find fault with," we said in our review last month, "but with a paper-thin, painfully boring story and little in the way of character development, this three-hour snoozefest is all style, no substance."
Avatar: The Way of Water is still playing in theaters. There's no word on a Disney+ debut quite yet, though we anticipate Disney waiting as long as possible, especially with it doing numbers like this from weekend to weekend.
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