The Way of Water can still be the highest grossing film of all time

James Cameron is not only the king of the world, but also the king of the cinema charts. With Titanic and Avatar – Departure for Pandora he put the most successful films of all time before and the sequel Avatar 2: The Way of Water should also achieve this goal. Or should we say better: The sequel has to approach this goal in order to get into the black. The budget is a gigantic 350 to 400 million dollars.

The science fiction sequel has been in cinemas worldwide since last week, but it hasn’t broken any records at the box office. Here you can find out how Avatar 2 fared in terms of box office earnings and whether the film can still be the most successful of all time with this turnover.

Avatar 2: The Way of Water has made so much money so far

In its first weekend, Avatar 2 fell short of expectations in the US. with $134 million in grossing Return to Pandora managed rank but only the fifth best opening weekend of the year behind films like Doctor Strange, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Jurassic World 3: A New Age. While the two Marvel adventures surpassed 180 million, the sci-fi epic is roughly on par with The Batman. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the expectations in advance were between 150 and 175 million dollars.

There is also a damper in China

However, Avatar 1 collected 70 percent of its record result from the rest of the world. How is The Way of Water running worldwide?

Outside the US, the Na’vi adventure has grossed $300 million to date and is coming up in total 434.5 million worldwide. Germany played its part with 1.33 million tickets sold since its launch on Wednesday, surpassing its predecessor by around 400,000 viewers (via Blickpunkt:Film).

However, the market that is of most international interest is a different one: China. Up to $100 million was forecast for Avatar 2, but it “only” reached $57.1 million. This is partly explained by the growing Covid-19 cases and a general sense of insecurity on the ground.

With that, Avatar 2 lands on the whole 3rd place in the list of most successful theatrical releases during the coronavirus pandemic. He’s back behind two Marvel movies: Doctor Strange 2 ($442 million) and Spider-Man: No Way Home ($600 million).

Avatar works differently than Marvel: How The Way of Water can still break records

The opening numbers are a setback for anyone pinning their hopes and bonuses on the success of the sci-fi film. On the other hand, the previous results no insurmountable obstacle on the way to the most successful film at all. James Cameron’s films perform differently at the box office than the competition from Marvel or DC.

Superhero films are considered “frontloaded”, because they have a large, passionate fan base. She definitely wants to see the film on the first weekend. That usually results in strong starts at the box office, followed by drops of 50 percent or more in the weeks that follow.

More about the film:

James Cameron’s films are less frontloaded, but more so they have staying power. The audience is diverse, it consists largely of families who watch his films later or even several times. That’s why Titanic and Avatar stayed at number 1 at the box office for weeks.

When Pandora first came out in 2009, it grossed just $77 million in its first weekend in the US, significantly less than its contemporaries Iron Man or The Dark Knight. While those two were down 40-50 percent over the second weekend, Avatar was down a whopping 1.8 percent.

It’s too early to write off the sci-fi movie

So it’s still a long time not time to write off Cameron or Avatar 2. What counts are the coming weeks and months. Several factors indicate that The Way of Water will prove steadfast:

In cinemas, the rest of the year belongs to Avatar 2: The Way of Water. Now James Cameron’s latest film has to prove its longevity. If he performs like Top Gun: Maverick, then it might work. That he’s the box office of $2.7 billion of the predecessor achieved at the first attempt is not a foregone conclusion, however. After all, it is half an hour longer, which is why it gets fewer performances per day, and the blockbuster has to do without the Russian cinema market. But neither is it impossible.

Podcast: Is Avatar 2 the best blockbuster of the last 13 years?!

In the current issue of the FILMSTARTS podcast on the screen, moderator Sebastian, editor Pascal and our guest David Hain talk about “Avatar 2: The Way Of Water”. All important questions are clarified: Was it worth the wait? Is the mega blockbuster just technically convincing or are the emotions there too? And what do Nazi zombies on the dark side of Pandora have to do with it?

The screen love is the weekly cinema and film podcast of our colleagues from FILMSTARTS.