Avatar: The Way of Water surpasses Jurassic World to become 7th biggest movie of all time

(Image credit: 20th Century Studios)

Avatar: The Way of Water is now the seventh highest-grossing movie of all time after another successful weekend at the box office. The sequel has overtaken Jurassic World and The Lion King (2019) after its latest figures were released – and is closing in on Spider-Man: No Way Home.

Per Box Office Mojo, the movie has earned $1.7 billion internationally after its fourth weekend at the top of the box office. In the first full weekend of January, the movie grossed $45 million in the US, closely followed by the $30 million taken by the horror movie M3GAN.

When Cameron was marketing the sequel, he told GQ the movie would need to be "the third or fourth highest-grossing film in history" to break even. The latest figures show the director is on track, with Spider-Man: No Way Home’s $1.91 billion international haul the next target.

As such the Titanic director shared that his five planned Avatar sequels have got the go-ahead as well, thanks to the movie’s success. This comes after he told Total Film that the future of the franchise had depended on Avatar 2's figures.

"It looks like just with the momentum that the film has now that will easily pass our break even in the next few days, so it looks like I can't wiggle out of this, I'm gonna have to do these other sequels," Cameron said on Who's Talking to Chris Wallace?

Avatar 3 has already finished filming, as the director has spoken about wanting to avoid "the Stranger Things effect" of his cast aging. For the latest on that and other upcoming movies, check out our movie release dates guide.

I’m the Deputy Entertainment Editor here at GamesRadar+, covering TV and film for the Total Film and SFX sections online. I previously worked as a Senior Showbiz Reporter and SEO TV reporter at Express Online for three years. I've also written for The Resident magazines and Amateur Photographer, before specializing in entertainment.