With USD 855 million (equivalent to INR 7,000 crores) in worldwide ticket sales after 10 days in theatres, Disney and 20th Century’s highbudget epic ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ has become the fifth-highest grossing film of the year. According to Variety, James Cameron’s longawaited sequel has so far brought in USD 253.7 million domestically and USD 600 million overseas.
The ‘Avatar’ sequel is anticipated to generate significant box office revenue in the near future, despite the severe winter weather in North America and the rising rates of COVID, RSV, and the flu worldwide. Variety reports that the USD 350 million budgeted film hopes to surpass the USD 1 billion mark by the end of the year. Only two other movies in 2022 have been able to surpass it: ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ and ‘Jurassic World Dominion.’
According to Variety, the highest-grossing country outside of North America for ‘Avatar 2’ has been China, with USD 100.5 million, followed by Korea (USD 53 million), France (USD 52.3 million), India (USD 37 million), and Germany (USD 35.7 million). However, as per Variety, there are a number of reasons why the sequel will find it difficult to match the success of the first movie, which brought in USD 2.97 billion globally, making it the highestgrossing picture in history. For starters, the global box office hasn’t entirely recovered from the pandemic, and significant markets like China are seeing the infection reemerge. Additionally, the sequel won’t be seen in Russia, where the first movie made USD 116 million.