There’s no stopping “The Way of Water.” James Cameron’s “Avatar” sequel is now the fifth highest-grossing movie of all time, passing “Avengers: Infinity War” to take its spot on Thursday. “Avatar: The Way of Water” has now grossed $2.054 billion at the global box office. “Infinity War” had an equally impressive $2.052 billion total, after releasing back in 2018.
Only “Avatar” ($2.92 billion), “Avengers: Endgame” ($2.79 billion), “Titanic” ($2.19 billion), and “Star Wars Episode VII – The Force Awakens” ($2.07 billion) rank higher on the all-time list. “Avatar: The Way of Water” has also earned more than “Spider-Man: No Way Home” ($1.92 billion), making it the highest-grossing movie of the pandemic era.
Internationally, “The Way of Water” has grossed $1.5 billion, making it the fourth-biggest movie in history. At the domestic box office, it’s made $603 million, standing as No. 13 of all time. It’s just the sixth movie ever made that has crossed $2 billion globally, doing so in its sixth week of release.
Notably, Thursday’s achievement now gives Cameron three of the top five highest-grossing movies of all time, but his movies also carry steep price tags. Sources say that “Avatar: The Way of Water,” which required the development of new technology to shoot motion-capture scenes underwater, needed to earn $1.5 billion to break even. Most films would have been wildly profitable from that point. Cameron is hoping to turn “Avatar” into a five-film franchise, one that will tell a multi-generational family saga. The filmmaker not only directed the latest “Avatar” movie, he also co-wrote it with Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver.
Entering its seventh week of release, “The Way of Water” has a good shot at surpassing “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” on the all-time charts, as the next major box office smash, “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” doesn’t hit theaters until Feb. 17. “Avatar: The Way of Water” stars Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Kate Winslet, Stephen Lang, and Sigourney Weaver. The sequel earned strong reviews from critics and has been nominated for four Oscars, including for best picture.
