Avatar: The Way of Water officially made its long-awaited debut this past weekend and showcased dominance at the domestic box office as one of the more notable new releases to make landfall in theaters. After an exhausting thirteen-year wait, the Avatar sequel took home $134 million to round out its highly-anticipated debut.
Avatar: The Way of Water is the follow-up to director James Cameron's recording-breaking film Avatar, which hit theaters during the 2009 holiday season. The film, which starred Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Laz Alonso, and Michelle Rodriguez, introduced audiences to the fantastical world of Pandora. The film was a cinematic spectacle and made over $2 billion worldwide to become the highest-grossing film of all time, which is a performance the sequel aspires to replicate.
As reported by Deadline, the Avatar sequel ended its debut three-day slate taking home roughly $134 million at the domestic box office to win the theatrical weekend. While the number is a promising start for the Cameron film, it needed to be better to depose Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which currently has the best opening weekend performance of the year. Worldwide the film was projected to earn roughly $525 million but fell short of that projection with a $435 million global start.
Despite falling short of projections, the Avatar sequel is still in a relatively good position to make some record-breaking noise in the weeks ahead. It was unclear how critics and audiences would receive the film because of the long hiatus between the sequel and the original, but overall the experience has been good for viewers. The film earned an A CinemaScore grade and currently has a 94% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. Positive Avatar: The Way of Water reviews are mighty, which the film will look to capitalize on throughout the holidays. It will be interesting to see if the prolonged time off will attract more families into theaters or if the lengthy runtime will still be a component that will motivate some to wait for an at-home release.
Avatar: The Way of Water might not have generated the numbers many expected to conclude its opening weekend, but the film did manage to dethrone Black Panther: Wakanda Forever from the top of the domestic box office standings. The Marvel Studios film dominated the domestic box office for five consecutive weekends before the arrival of the Avatar sequel, which many expected to draw attention away from the Ryan Coolger film. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever ended its sixth weekend in second place with $5.4 million, followed by Violent Night, Strange World, and The Menu to round the top five best performances.
Avatar: The Way of Water is currently playing in theaters.
Source: Deadline