On December 16, many viewers returned to Pandora. Thirteen years after the release of Avatar, James Cameron returned to theaters with the long-awaited sequel, Avatar and the way of water, the new film starring Zoë Saldana and Sam Worthington. And the box office anticipated that movie lovers were eager to see the blue characters again and so its director, James Cameron, wanted to thank the viewers for their visit to the cinemas by posting this video on his Twitter account.
Thank you to all of you who have already taken the journey back to Pandora. #AvatarTheWayOfWater pic.twitter.com/HSyjB7uEik
— James Cameron (@JimCameron) December 18, 2022
The film, which could close out the list of most successful films in 2022, managed to gross a total of $434.5 million worldwide during its first weekend. Of that figure, $134 million is from North American theaters and the remaining $300 million is profit from theaters throughout the rest of the world, as broken down by Box Office Mojo.
Lower than expected results
Although it opened well at the box office, the results were not what Walt Disney Studios had hoped for. The predictions were far superior to what was finally achieved. The film was expected to gross $525 million in its first three days, with $175 million coming from U.S. theaters and the remainder from the rest of the world, led by China.
However, the Japanese market, still badly affected by the coronavirus, was significantly lower than expected, grossing only $57 million, as reported by Variety.
The figure obtained during its premiere does not mean anything. Domestically, during its first three days on the big screen, its predecessor earned only $77 million, but finished with a total gross of $749 million in the U.S. alone. This means that, Avatar and the way of water can still sneak into the top grossing films of 2022, even more likely considering that it is already the second best worldwide release of 2022 and the third of the post-covid era.
