The Happy Scrapper

New extended-range Avatar: The Way of Water opening weekend projections at the box office show the sequel nearly doubling James Cameron’s first movie. The sci-fi thriller of 2009 set all kinds of box office records on its way to becoming the top-grossing film ever. Avatar’s incredible box office success has also attracted a lot of attention to how much money Avatar 2 will make. Although no one is expecting Avatar 2 to surpass the previous film’s $2.9 billion worldwide haul and the film’s massive budget and Disney’s commitment to the future of the franchise means that there’s a lot of pressure for Avatar: The Way of Water to succeed.

Based on the latest long-range tracking provided through Box Office Pro, Avatar: The Way of Water is now expected to bring in over $135 million during its opening weekend in the US. The Avatar film’s original box office debut was a massive $77M domestically in December. Therefore, the new projections suggest Avatar 2’s opening weekend box office to nearly double that of the first. These projections even suggest that the sequel will bring in $475M domestically by end the theatrical release which is lower than earlier estimates and roughly half of what Avatar produced domestically.

A strong first weekend opening for Avatar: The Way of Water could be a fantastic beginning for the sequel’s success at the box office. A reported $135 million opening could mean that the sequel will earn in one weekend what took James Cameron’s first film a full week to make. But, Avatar: The Way Of Water Review isn’t going to be able to find a road to surpass the original. The secret to Avatar’s remarkable box office success is the movie’s remarkable word-of-mouth and repeated watchings that kept the movie running in theaters for 234 consecutive days. This isn’t commonplace even for the largest films. For reference, Top Gun: Maverick was the highest-rated film of 161 days in the year.

There’s little doubt of the possibility that Avatar: The Way of Water will surpass the first film, however, it’s not required to become the most-grossing production ever to be a success. The anticipation for the sequel has largely squashed the argument that Avatar did not make a lasting impression on general audiences. Even even if the sequel’s gross is half as much as the first movie but it still makes $1.3 billion which would make the Avatar 2’s billion-dollar box office an enormous success. This is enough to be the second highest-grossing movie in 2022.

There’s still some pressure on the Avatar 2 box office to be profitable enough for James Cameron to continue his sequel plans alive. He’s contracted to make three more sequels which will include Avatar 3 already completely filmed. There is also some work being done to make Avatar 4. The director has said that if the sequel’s box office falls short and the audience is not keen, Avatar 3 could be the final installment in the series. In this way, Avatar The Water’s box-office will play a huge role in determining what comes the next James Cameron’s films.