The original Avatar stands as the highest-grossing movie of all-time. However, it appears that Avatar: The Way of Water has its work cut out for it if there is any chance of it coming close to the first film. Director James Cameron’s long-awaited sequel opened below box office projections with $134 million domestically, and $441.6 million worldwide. For an ordinary movie, those are blockbuster numbers. But for one of the most expensive films ever made, it means its profitability is in question.
According to most reports, The Way of Water had a $460 million budget, not counting a promotional campaign likely to be higher than $100 million. Cameron himself has suggested that the film would need to be “the third or fourth highest-grossing film in history” to break even. Regardless, Deadline notes that Hollywood is uncharacteristically optimistic about the film’s holiday prospects. If it can leg out a few additional weekends without dramatic drops, it could still prove to be a box office winner.
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Black Panther: Wakanda Forever finished in a distant second with $5.4 million. That brings its total to $418.99 million for the year, which is second only to Top Gun: Maverick. Universal’s Violent Night came in third with $5 million, and a new total of $34.96 million. That’s better than Disney’s Strange World, which had $2.2 million in fourth place, and $33.8 million to date. That film is likely to be the biggest box office bomb of the year.
The Menu settled in at fifth place with $1.7 million, and $32 million to date. Sony’s Devotion followed in sixth place, with $825,000, bringing its total to $18.7 million. Steven Spielberg’s The Fablemans had the seventh slot, with $750,000 and $8.66 million to date. The Black Adam movie is still hanging around at eighth place, with $500,000 and $167.7 million total.
Rounding out the top ten for the weekend were I Heard the Bells in ninth with $309,000 and just under $5 million to date, as well as Empire of Light in tenth with $235,000 and $471,800 to date.
Do you think The Way of Water will be able to break even? Let us know in the comment section below!
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