The long-awaitedAvatarsequel continues to clean up at the box office.
In the 14 days it’s been in theaters,Avatar: The Way of Waterhas now made more than $1 billion at the global box office. According toVariety, as of Wednesday, the more-than-three-hour sci-fi film, which is offered in 3D and premium formats, has earned $317.1 million domestically and $712.7 million internationally, for a total of $1.025 billion so far. It wasNo. 1 at the box officethe past two weekends.
The only other films to surpass $1 billion this year wereTop Gun: MaverickandJurassic World Dominion.
Last December,Spider-Man: No Way Homereached $1 billion in 12 days, and that film went on to earn more than $1.9 billion worldwide, perBox Office Mojo.
Director James Cameron recently toldGQthat the sequel, which pushes the limits of visual effects and features all-new filmmaking techniques, was"very f—ing" expensive to make. Cameron, 68, joked that he told the studio that the film was “the worst business case in movie history,” and that it would “have to be the third- or fourth-highest-grossing film in history” to just “break even.”
Courtesy of 20th Century Studios
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Avatar: The Way of WaterstarsSam Worthington,Zoe Saldaña,Sigourney Weaver,Kate Winslet, Stephen Lang and more. It earnedGolden GlobeandCritics Choice Award nominationsfor best picture. (Oscar nominations will be announced later in January.)
Last December, Cameron toldEntertainment Weeklythat, given the state of moviegoing amid the pandemic and beyond, he worried whether the sequel would be able to matchAvatar’s success. (A third film has already completed filming with plans forfurther sequels in the works.)
“The big issue is: Are we going to make any damn money? Big, expensive films have got to make a lot of money,” said Cameron at the time. “We’re in a new world post-COVID, post-streaming. Maybe those [box office] numbers will never be seen again. Who knows? It’s alla big roll of the dice.”
Avatar: The Way of Wateris now in theaters.
source: people.com
