James Cameron’s spectacular blockbuster sequel is still defying expectations even this late in the game. After a big win at the Oscars Sunday night, Avatar: The Way of Water has more good news coming soon, likely topping $2.3+ billion in global box office over the next couple of weeks. The Avatar sequel is already the third-highest grossing movie of all time.
Official Dolby Cinema poster for “Avatar: The Way of Water”
Weta FX team members Richard Baneham, Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, and Daniel Barrett accepted the Oscar Sunday night for their groundbreaking work on Avatar: The Way of Water.
The Way of Water currently sits at $2.93.7 billion after adding an impressive $12+ million over the previous seven days. Even after nearly three months in theaters, the film is still holding onto a spot in the top 10 weekly grossers.
It’s incredible to see this sustained play three months later, after multiple other big releases with overlapping target audiences took premium screens and increasingly squeezed Avatar: The Way of Water out of multiplex spaces.
This isn’t just a sign of broad general attendance for a popular blockbuster in the moment. We’re seeing repeat business and continued word of mouth motivation driving people to Avatar 2 and then pulling them back again.
So any notion the franchise lacks impact or resonance, that it’s devoid of deeper themes and meanings that connect powerfully with people everywhere around the world, or that it isn’t a sign of continued sustained cultural and cinematic importance, isn’t fooling anyone but themselves at this point.
We should expect to see huge numbers from Avatar: The Way of Water’s upcoming home digital release on March 28th. The 4K UHD with Dolby Atmos will include three hours of bonus content is sure to be gobbled up eagerly by fans who will be excited to dive deeper into The Way of Water’s visual splendor and mind-blowing leaps forward in visual effects, CGI, and motion capture technology.
But no deleted scenes. At least, not yet, as the studio appears to be wisely saving that for the Blu-ray/DVD launch, which will probably significantly boost those sales beyond their inevitably already-huge levels.
Indeed, I suspect we might see an initial hard copy release that sports only a small portion of deleted footage, to save some back for a re-release either later this year or next year ahead of Avatar 3’s Christmas season release.
That inevitable theatrical re-release could drive Avatar: The Way of Water’s box office cume beyond the $2.5 billion mark, putting it in closer position to eventually challenge Avengers: Endgame’s $2.79 billion box office total for the all-time #2 spot on box office charts. It might take a couple of re-releases or so before The Way of Water can crack it, but I think it’s in the cards if the film does get the two (or more) re-releases I expect.
In its final weeks of theatrical release — or rather, presumed final weeks, since at this point it’s impossible to rule out Avatar: The Way of Water just hanging on with tiny weekly drops for another month — the film is only being beat at the box office by releases from the past 24 days or less. Nothing less recent than Ant-Man and the Wasp is grossing more than Avatar 2 at this point.
In fact, half of the seven movies topping Avatar: The Way of Water released as recently as two weekends ago or less. The importance of this fact might not be obvious at first, but it’s a powerful statement of longevity that almost the only films capable of beating The Way of Water three months into its run are new releases capable of attracting enough attention in their first couple of weeks. Challengers have come and gone, fading out of the top 10 while Avatar 2 remains.
This all bodes very well for Avatar 3 and the rest of the franchises’ long and healthy future. We will eventually get some animated and live-action/CGI series spinoffs from the Avatar movies, as well as lots more merchandise than existed for the original film back in 2009.
Avatar 3 has already finished principal photography, having shot simultaneously with Avatar: The Way of Water. The two films shared a lot of expenses, so the actual eventual budget of both films will be less than it might sound when you hear the initial figures for The Way of Water, since some can be attributed to Avatar 3’s budget or goes toward rendering similar costs vastly lower or moot for the third film.
It’s worth noting that this is a rare situation where a studio invests heavily in development and production of multiple films within a larger franchise, letting the films share costs as a single project instead of each having to justify it’s own costs one at a time to secure the rest of the story in sequels.
Richard Donner’s two Superman films in the 1970s, The Lord of the Rings trilogy in the early 2000s, Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy, and the launch of Marvel’s MCU are a few of the most obvious successful examples pointing to the value of ambitious, visionary filmmakers backed by the full faith and power of a studio to build new immersive worlds and help propel cinema and storytelling ever forward.
Be sure to check this space again soon, dear readers, for more of my box office updates, as well as plenty of movie news, analysis, and reviews.
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