The sequel Avatar: The Way of Water has to succeed, as 20th Century Studios conceived it. The studio gave director James Cameron total creative and budgetary freedom. This situation led to a very particular marketing of the film: the movie must exceed two billion at the box office to be profitable. An astronomical figure, even for a franchise as successful as Avatar.
The premiere of this production was good, with $134 million domestic box office. It was a good start, considering the current pandemic situation.
Its progression continues to be satisfactory, even though it is not expected to surpass the prequel’s success, earning $2.92 billion in revenue. It could break this year’s records and open the door to Avatar sequels.
Avatar: The Way of Water currently grosses $550 million worldwide. However, at $350 million budgeted, it is far from breaking even. The bright spot is that it maintains a good grossing margin, which would cause it to reach and even surpass that point of no loss, generating a profit.
Avatar Way of Water Global Box Office Surpasses $550 Million
Image: 20th Century Studios/Disney
The Avatar: The Way of Water movie was released on December 16, 2022. Its start was outstanding—the movie grossed in the United States for approximately $168.6 million. In the rest of the world, it has a cumulative $387.3 million. This makes a total box office of almost $555.9 million.
This still needs to be added to the $350 million invested in its production. However, this figure does not consider the expenses incurred in marketing the film, making the amount even higher.
Despite this, Avatar: The Way of Water is projected to gross more than $1 billion by the end of the year. As impressive as this figure is, it is a long way from breaking even. In the coming weeks, the revenue is expected to drop by approximately 40%, generating approximately $80 million in grosses.
Image: 20th Century Studios/Disney
This film is facing the measures and fear caused by COVID-19. There are still security measures in place to prevent contagion in the United States and in key countries such as China. The rebound of some cases is affecting the box office, especially in Asian countries. This may make it impossible for it to match the first part.
These numbers could put Avatar: The Way of Water in the top 3 in grosses for the year. The first place is for Top Gun: Maverick, with a total gross of $1,488,732,821 million. In second place is Jurassic World: Dominion, which grossed $1,001,136,080 million. Finally, in third place is Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which grossed 955,775,804 million dollars. With the latter, it was banned in China, so it played disadvantageously.
Challenges for Avatar 2 for the Rest of the Year
Image: 20th Century Studios/Disney
It would seem that COVID-19 would be the only challenge that Avatar: The Way of Water must overcome to increase its box office, but other factors may have an impact. The first is the holiday season itself, which can significantly affect the number of people going to movie theaters.
Another problem is the movies that will be released soon, which could take away part of the users. An example is a new production of Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, which opens this December 21. Another significant movie we will have this month is Babylon from filmmaker Damien Chazelle.
We also have another important filming that may affect the Avatar 2 box office. This is a bibliographic film of the singer Whitney Houston called I Wanna Dance With Somebody. It is unlikely that these three films can dethrone Avatar Way of Water from the top spots, but they will affect its revenues in a minor or major way.
Image via 20th Century Fox.
The situation is more challenging for the second part of Avatar, which is counting on the U.S. and Chinese markets for its earnings. It is worth noting that these countries caused the first part’s box office to be so huge. In fact, through 20th Century, the studio developing this film, Disney, made all the arrangements for China to allow the film to enter the market.
In statements before its premiere, several directors declared that they expected a similar or even greater affluence in the Asian country. This is considering that this production has higher expectations than in the first part.
Featured Image Via 20th Century Studios