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Avatar: The Way of Water To Hit $1 Billion Mark In Just 12 Days
Avatar: The Way of Water will hit the $1 billion milestone in just 12 days after its release. The long-awaited sequel to 2009's Avatar, which still stands as the highest-grossing film of all time, Avatar: The Way of Water was released in theaters on December 16. Despite an opening weekend that was below expectations, its second weekend at the box office showed that James Cameron's blockbuster had serious staying power and was primed to go the distance. Now, the sequel has hit its first major milestone.
Deadline reports that Avatar: The Way of Water will hit $1 billion mark worldwide after its second Tuesday's grosses are accumulated. After its second Monday in theaters, the sequel is sitting at $955 million, meaning Avatar 2 will easily hit $1 billion with Tuesday's turnout. Amazingly, Avatar: The Way of Water will achieve the major milestone in just 12 days after its theatrical release.
Avatar: The Way of Water Is Shaping Up To Be A Big Box-Office Success
Despite some initial concerns about its massive production budget, modest opening weekend, and whether it can live up to the original movie, Avatar: The Way of Water is shaping up to be a big box-office success. In just 12 days, it's managed to pass the box office total of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness ($955 million) to become the third-highest-grossing movie of the year behind Top Gun: Maverick and Jurassic World Dominion. For comparison, it took Top Gun: Maverick 31 days to hit the $1 billion mark, while it took Jurassic World Dominion more than four months to get there.
Without much competition ahead, Avatar: The Way of Water is expected to continue dominating the box office for the foreseeable future, which it must do to justify its massive production budget, estimated to be anywhere from $350–460 million. In turn, Cameron estimates that Avatar: The Way of Water needs to gross about $2 billion just to break even, though experts project that number is closer to $1.5 billion. Nevertheless, given its box office performance so far, the sequel has a serious shot at surpassing either milestone.
After hitting the $1 billion mark in 12 days, Avatar: The Way of Water has a chance, albeit an improbable one, to surpass the first film's $2.97 billion total, which was achieved after multiple theatrical re-releases. There are several factors holding the sequel back – it won’t be released in Russia, where the original made over $100 million, and the worldwide box office still hasn’t fully recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic. Still, Avatar: The Way of Water has sailed to the $1 billion mark in just twelve days, and it's showing no signs of slowing down.
