Avatar: The Way of Water has massive streaming debut

Avatar: The Way of Water absolutely stormed the box office – and now the blockbuster has conquered streaming, too. 

According to data from Nielsen (H/T Deadline), Avatar 2, which hit both Disney Plus and HBO Max on June 7, clocked up a massively impressive 1.9 billion minutes of viewing in its first week streaming. 

The Way of Water cleared the two billion mark at the box office, which catapulted the film to the third spot in the biggest movies of all time list. It's behind only the first Avatar and Avengers: Endgame, while another James Cameron epic, Titanic, is in fourth place. Star Wars: The Force Awakens is fifth. 

"If you watch Way of Water at home on a reasonably large flat screen TV with a decent sound system, and you sit close enough and that way across the room, you're going to have a good experience," Cameron has said of watching Way of Water from the comfort of your home.

"When you start looking at something on a phone, you're sort of missing the point," he added. "Going to a movie theater is less about the size of the screen and the perfection of the sound system. And it's more about a decision to not multitask."

More Avatar movies on the way, though they've recently been pushed back. Avatar 3 won't arrive until December 2025, with the fourth movie coming in 2026, and the fifth arriving in 2028. 

"Great! I'm gonna be 53 when the last Avatar comes out," Zoe Saldaña wrote on Instagram when the delay was announced. "I was 27 when I shot the very first Avatar."

While you wait for Avatar 3, check out our guide to all the upcoming major movie release dates for everything 2023 has in store.