The battle between Avatar: The Way of Water and Top Gun: Maverick was hard fought, but Avatar 2 looks to have taken first place for the highest-grossing film at the 2022 global box office. Despite the time between the original Top Gun and Avatar films, audiences were still excited about their respective sequels, hoping that the new films would live up to their expectations and what was universally praised about the first ones.
Avatar: The Way of Water was set to make one billion dollars less than ten days after its release. The box office fight was not easy for Avatar 2 to win, but according to recent reports, the Avatar sequel has surpassed the Top Gun sequel, showing that some battles are better fought in the water than in the air.
According to a report by The Hollywood Reporter, Avatar: The Way of Water has now grossed more money at the box office than Top Gun: Maverick to become the highest-grossing film of 2022. The report goes on to express that Avatar gained $454 million domestically and crossed $1 billion internationally, adding up to $1.51 billion worldwide, compared to Top Gun: Maverick's $1.49 billion worldwide profit since its May 2022 release. However, Spider-Man: No Way Home is still at the top of theatrical releases during the pandemic, as it reigns with $1.916 billion worldwide. Comparing box office numbers between Avatar and Top Gun, the James Cameron sequel crossed a billion within two weeks, contrasted to Top Gun, which took a month to get there.
Between the Avatar films and Titanic, Cameron is now the first director to have the most films cross $1.5 billion at the box office. Even so, during a press junket, the director described that the Avatar sequel would need to make $2 billion to be considered a success, as the movie is one of the most expensive films ever made, with an overall budget of $600 million, including marketing for the film. Cameron said the third Avatar film could close out the trilogy if The Way of Water had not performed well, but it seems like it is on track to be a success because there are currently a total of four films planned in the Avatar saga.
Perhaps most interesting is that the Avatar sequel is 30 minutes longer than its predecessor, which seems to shatter the narrative that longer movies make less money at the box office. Logistically, longer movies mean there are fewer showings in a day, but if the movie is good, audiences will still show up at theaters to watch.
Avatar: The Way of Water is currently available in theaters.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter