Avatar: The Way of Water's worldwide box office total will reach $1 billion in just twelve days after its theatrical release.
Avatar: The Way of Water will reach $1 billion in just 12 days after its release. The long-awaited sequel to 2009's Avatar movie, which still ranks as the highest-grossing movie of all time, Avatar: The Way of Water was released in theaters on December 16. Despite an opening weekend that fell short of expectations, its second weekend at the box office showed that James Cameron's blockbuster had serious staying power and was poised to go far. Now, the sequel has its first breakthrough.
Deadline reports that Avatar: The Way of Water will hit $1 billion worldwide after accumulating its second Tuesday grossing. After its second Monday in theaters, the sequel is priced at $955 million, which means Avatar 2 will easily reach $1 billion with Tuesday's blockbuster. Amazingly, Avatar: The Way of Water will hit the milestone in just 12 days after its theatrical release.
Avatar: The Way of Water is shaping up to be a massive box office success
Despite some initial concerns about its massive production budget, mediocre opening weekend, and whether it can live up to the original film, Avatar: The Way of Water is shaping up to be a massive box-office success. In just 12 days, it passed the box office total of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness ($955 million) to become the third-highest-grossing film of the year behind Top Gun: Maverick and Jurassic World Dominion. For comparison, Top Gun: Maverick took 31 days to reach the billion-dollar mark, while Jurassic World Dominion took over four months to get there.
Without significant competition ahead, Avatar: The Way of Water is expected to continue to dominate the box office for the foreseeable future, which it must do to justify its massive production budget, estimated at $350-460 million. In turn, Cameron estimates that Avatar: The Way of Water needs a total of just $2 billion to break even, though experts project that figure is closer to $1.5 billion. However, given its box office performance so far, the sequel has a serious chance of surpassing any of the notable achievements.
Having reached the $1 billion mark in 12 days, Avatar: The Way of Water has a chance, albeit an unlikely one, to surpass the first film's $2.97 billion gross, which was reached after multiple re-releases in theaters. Several factors are holding the sequel back — it won't be released in Russia, grossed over $100 million, and the global box office still hasn't fully recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic. Still, Avatar: The Way of Water hit the billion-dollar mark in just twelve days, and it shows no signs of slowing down.