Slow and steady wins the race, especially if you’re James Cameron and the world always seems to be skeptical about your chances. It’s been said never to bet against Cameron. Still, pundits were doing just that in the first-week opening of “Avatar: The Way Of Water,” when it opened to $134 million domestically, far less than the early $170 million projections. Box Office watchers and armchair film analysts quickly said Cameron and the “Avatar” franchise were in trouble.
But cut to 22 days later, and “Avatar: The Way Of Water” has now become the #1 highest-grossing film of 2022, unseating Tom Cruise’s “Top Gun: Maverick” from this milestone. Currently, the film crossed $1.5 billion (exact numbers not final yet), has crossed the $1 billion mark just with overseas numbers alone, and has now cracked the top ten highest-grossing films of all-time list, removing “Furious 7” from the tenth spot. Keep in mind that it’s already reached these figures after less than four weeks in theaters and has plenty of juice left in the tank with no real box-office competition until March (and a little competition in February).
‘The Way Of Water’ is just a juggernaut that keeps accumulating major figures week over week and during the weekend day as well. Updated projections for the film see it grossing anywhere in the neighborhood of $2.2 billion to $2.8 billion (yes, that’s wide, but it’s tough to tell what kind of legs it could have). Domestically, ‘Avatar 2’ is at $464.9 million but it will be cracking the all-time domestic top 20 in a day or two. At this pace and trajectory—with major gains being made each day, like how the film grossed the highest Tuesday of all time in North America— and little competition to speak of, “The Way Of Water” is likely going to surpass the $650 million mark at home and could keep going as high as $800 million.
Right now, it’s simply how high can “The Way Of Water” go, with cracking the $2 billion mark basically in the can already. If it even hits the low end of the prediction mark, $2.2 billion, that’ll be the third highest-grossing film of all time, besting another little-known movie from James Cameron, “Titanic,” out of that position. So, yes, it bears repeating: never bet against James Cameron.