Avatar: The Way of Water is holding strong at the box office after debuting below predictions. While the film was expected to bring in around $525 million globally across its opening weekend, it actually made $435 million, but analysts are predicting mighty legs as it continues to make huge numbers over the week.
Per Deadline, Avatar 2 had grossed $497.1 million total through Monday, December 19, and the film has now passed the $500 million mark – a separate report from the publication predicted $17 million for December 20 in the US, which means the James Cameron film could potentially have had the best Tuesday at the 2022 box office – if it can beat Minions: The Rise of Gru's $17.5 million record.
Cameron has already said the film needs to be one of the highest-grossing movies of all time just to break even, but, in pandemic times, box office totals have been far lower than pre-2020. The only films to break the billion-dollar mark since the pandemic have been Top Gun: Maverick, Spider-Man: No Way Home, and Jurassic World Dominion. No film has yet crossed the $2 billion mark, though No Way Home came very close with $1.9 billion.
The first Avatar film remains the highest-grossing movie ever, and The Way of Water has very little competition over the holiday period, so it's likely the film will continue its momentum. Just how big that box office total will grow remains to be seen.
If you're up to speed on Avatar 2, check out our spoilery guide to the Avatar: The Way of Water ending explained. For everything else coming soon, see our roundup of all the biggest upcoming movies to start getting excited about.
