“Avatar: The Way of Water” Crosses $1 Billion Mark Worldwide

Screenshot from
Screenshot from "Avatar: The Way of Water"

Just two weeks after its premiere, James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water has officially hit the coveted $1 billion mark at the box office. The long-awaited sequel is the fastest movie released in 2022 to hit this number and only the third to do so.

The Way of Water arrived in theatres on December 16, thirteen years after the original movie—and it was worth waiting for. Despite initial concerns that the audiences won’t show up due to the film’s long delay, this sequel is now on the path to replicating the box office success of the original, which remains the highest-grossing film of all time.

Just 14 days after its release, The Way of Water crossed the $1 billion mark worldwide, including $317.1 million domestically. These numbers don’t come as a shocker considering its $441.7 million opening, the third largest in the pandemic era behind Marvel’s Spider-Man: No Way Home and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

Avatar: The Way of Water is also the second-highest-grossing film of 2022, and only the third to cross the $1 billion mark following Top Gun: Maverick and Jurassic World Dominion. Cameron previously said that The Way of Water would have to be one of the highest-grossing films in film history just to break even and described it as “the worst business case in movie history.”