By: Nicholas Ortiz
Nearly thirteen years after the release of the original film, “Avatar: The Way Of Water” opened with an amazing box office start, even if it fell a bit short from domestic expectations. During its opening weekend, the film grossed $435 million internationally (including Thursday night previews). It was deemed successful to some and underwhelming to others.
In the domestic market, the film opened with $134 million, falling short from both the $175 million opening that was predicted by box office analysts and the $135-150 million opening that Disney (who recently acquired 20th Century Fox) had forecasted. In the international market, the film opened with an additional $301 million which contributed to the $435 million overall opening, making it the second largest international box office opening for any movie this year, only behind Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness, which opened with $442 million in May. In China, the film opened with a disappointing $57 million—box office analysts had predicted the movie to open with a distant $100 million following promising data surrounding presale rates. Many of these analysts and the general public blame a recent COVID-19 outbreak in Beijing as one of the reasons for these surprising opening results.
Overall, it is expected that the sequel to the highest grossing movie in history will not reach the crazy heights of its predecessor, but it will still make impressive numbers – it is expected to finalize its box office run with a total gross between $2.2-$2.8 BILLION. This is enough for the film to become profitable as the movie’s director and industry titan James Cameron wished.