Just as the firstAvatardid back in 2009, directorJames Cameron’s long-in-the-making sequel —Avatar: The Way of Water— is showing a weekend-to-weekend increase in box office revenue as it enters the New Year. The film is expected to gross $63.4 million in its third weekend, which is 2% higher than what it made last weekend. Over the extended four-day New Years frame, revised projections put the film’s haul at $82 million.
With this,The Way of Waterhas sailed past the $400 million mark at the domestic box office, with $421 million in the bank currently. It is expected to top $440 million by Monday, which is admittedly lower than thebullish $450 million estimatesthat forecasters were predicting just yesterday. That being said, the film is performing about as well as anybody would’ve hoped.
At the same stage, the firstAvatarhad grossed around $350 million. But that film opened to significantly lower figures before showing incredible legs over the holiday period and into 2010, ultimately finishing as the highest-grossing movie in history. It’s unlikely thatThe Way of Watermatches the firstAvatar’s $785 million domestic and $2.9 billion global haul, but projections put the film’s final figures between $1.6 billion and $1.9 billion, all but guaranteeing a position on the list of 2022’s highest-grossing movies globally ahead ofTop Gun: Maverick($1.48 billion).The Way of Wateralso has a chance of finishing as the biggest movie of the pandemic era if it manages to surpass the $1.9 billion lifetime haul ofSpider-Man: No Way Home.
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The Way of Water’s running worldwide total stands at an excellent $1.37 billion. Domestically, it’s poised to overtakeBlack Panther: Wakanda Forever’s $438 million haul by tomorrow. The Marvel Cinematic Universe sequel took the third spot in its eighth weekend, with an estimated $4.8 million ($6.5 million over the four-day holiday). The film’s running global total stands at $818 million.
But the second spot went to Universal’s release of Dreamworks’Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, which is looking at a $16.3 million three-day and $21.7 million four-day finish, pushing its running domestic total to $66 million. The fourth and fifth spots went to Sony’sWhitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody($5.4 million four-day) and Paramount’sBabylon($3.6 million four-day), respectively. TheWhitney Houstonbiopic will top $16 million by tomorrow, while directorDamien Chazelle’s period drama is tanking with just over $11 million domestically, and is expected to lose the studio around $80 million.
Elsewhere, A24’s divisive dramaThe Whale— directed byDarren Aronofskyand starring the belovedBrendan Fraserin an acclaimed performance — is looking at a $1.7 million four-day finish, pushing its running domestic total to just over $6 million.
You can watch our interview with Fraser here, and stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
