Avatar: The Way of Water is now the highest-grossing Hollywood movie of all time in India. As per Disney India, the James Cameron-directed sequel has collected over Rs. 454 crore (about $55 million) in the country, surpassing the numbers set by 2019’s Avengers: Endgame, which pulled Rs. 438 crore (about $53 million) at the box office during its run in 2019. From a worldwide standpoint, Avatar 2 has swum past $1.7 billion (about Rs. 14,000 crore), securing its place as the seventh-biggest movie ever made, sitting right behind the Marvel Cinematic Universe interdimensional adventure Spider-Man: No Way Home. According to the latest figures, Avatar: The Way of Water has garnered $1.19 billion (about Rs. 9,785 crore) from markets outside the US and Canada. It crossed the half-a-million mark in the latter regions, for an exact value of $517 million (about Rs. 4,251 crore).
From the looks of it, Avatar: The Way of Water is destined to hit the $2 billion (about Rs. 16,445 crore) mark in the coming weeks — a requirement Cameron deemed as necessary to “break even,” implying that a lower value poses problems for the franchise’s future. Just last week, the director confirmed that he will be resuming work on the follow-ups, which amount to a total of five films.
“It looks like, with the momentum that the film has now, that we’ll easily pass our break even in the next few days, so it looks like I can’t wiggle out of this and I’m gonna have to do these other sequels,” Cameron said on an episode of Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace? (via Variety). “I know what I’m going to be doing the next six or seven years.” Cameron expects to have a discussion with Disney “soon,” pertaining to plans after Avatar 3, which has already been filmed. Some Avatar 4 scenes have also been filmed. Cameron also noted that Avatar 4 and Avatar 5 were both ready in screenplay form.
Avatar 2 global box office breakdown
Coming back to the box office figures, as per Deadline, China retains its topmost position — outside the US and Canada — as the leading market for Avatar: The Way of Water, having collected $188.3 million (about Rs. 1,547 crore). Right behind sits France, which has drawn $107.2 million (about Rs. 881 crore), widening its gap over South Korea, which is now positioned at fourth, with $85.6 million (about Rs. 703 crore). The two regions have been neck and neck in terms of ticket sales. Nestled between the two in no. 3 is Germany, having pulled $92.6 million (about Rs. 761 crore) in Avatar 2 ticket sales, while the UK maintains its fifth spot with $69.1 million (about Rs. 568 crore) collected. India was pushed out of the top 5 race last week and has made about $55 million (Rs. 454 crore), as stated before.
With Avatar 2 slowly edging towards the $2 billion movie club, it has left three films in its wake since last week. They are the Chris Pratt-led soft reboot Jurassic World at $1.67 billion (about Rs. 13,717 crore), the 2019 photorealistic remake The Lion King at 1.65 billion (about Rs. 13,552 crore), and Marvel’s first superhero get-together The Avengers at $1.5 billion (about Rs. 12,320 crore).
What to expect from Avatar 3?
As for Avatar 3, which is no longer in danger of being the final film of the franchise, Cameron teased last week that it will introduce the “Ash People,” representative of the fire culture.
“I want to show the Na’vi from another angle because, so far, I have only shown their good sides,” he told 20 Minutes. “In the early films, there are very negative human examples and very positive Na’vi examples. In Avatar 3, we will do the opposite. We will also explore new worlds while continuing the story of the main characters.”
Avatar: The Way of Water is playing in theatres globally. In India, Avatar 2 is available in English, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil, and Telugu.
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