Some claimed it couldn’t be done, but James Cameron’s “Avatar: The Way of Water” is set to hit $2 billion at the worldwide box-office tonight.
It will become only the sixth film in history to accomplish this feat and it’s still got plenty of legs left. When all is said and done, ‘The Way of Water’ could finish as high as third in the all-time worldwide list, right behind “Avengers: Endgame” and, yes, “Avatar.”
The budget for ‘The Way of Water’ was said to be around $450 million, and that’s not counting marketing costs. Three sequels have already been greenlit and Cameron might direct all of them.
‘The Way of Water’ has also surpassed “Spider-Man: No Way Home ($1.91 billion) as the pandemic-era box-office champ. It hasn’t yet made as much domestically as ‘No Way Home,’ it’s around $240 million behind its $814 million total.
What Cameron has done is give moviegoing a much needed boost. Now, a Best Picture nomination would be the icing on the cake, I would imagine ‘Way of the Water’ and “Top Gun: Maverick” figuring in the race would give a much-needed ratings boost to ABC.
ALL-TIME WORLDWIDE GROSSERS
Avatar $2.9 billion
Avengers: Endgame $2.8 billion
Titanic $2.19 billion
The Force Awakens $2.07 billion
Avengers: Infinity War $2.05 billion
Avatar: The Way of Water $2 billion
Spider-Man: No Way Home $1.92 billion
Jurassic World $1.67 billion