James Cameron has reclaimed his title of ‘King of the World’ with the success of his “Avatar” sequel, “Avatar: The Way of Water.”
The movie has become the highest-grossing movie of 2022, earning an impressive $1.5 billion in just three weeks since its December 16th release.
It surpassed the previous top movie of the year, “Top Gun: Maverick,” which earned $1.489 billion worldwide. This marks Cameron’s return to the top of the box office after his much-anticipated followup.
“The Way of Water” has earned a total of $465 million in the US, but has a long way to go to beat the record-breaking “Maverick” which earned $718 million.
Despite this, the movie has shown strong legs and earned more in its third three-day weekend than in its second, growing 6%. This is a rare feat for a big-budget tentpole, suggesting that it could maintain its momentum until “Ant-Man and the Wasp” is released in February.
“The Way of Water” is topping the 2022 box office thanks to strong ticket sales in China, despite a lower-than-expected opening weekend and pandemic-related lockdowns.
The movie earned $162 million at the China box office, just shy of the $262 million the first “Avatar” made there.
If “The Way of Water” catches its predecessor, it would be the most impressive feat – “Avatar” is the biggest movie of all time, with $2.9 billion at the global box office.
“The Way of Water” has grossed $1.5 billion worldwide, exceeding Cameron’s expectations for the movie to break even. Cameron previously suggested that the movie needed to earn $2 billion to break even, but Variety reported that the break-even number was closer to $1.5 billion.
Despite this, the movie is still pacing ahead of its predecessor at the same point in its release and could potentially reach the $2 billion mark.