UPDATED 12/28, 4:40 p.m. ET: Avatar: The Way of Water has topped $1 billion in global ticket sales just 14 days after it was released, CNBC reports.
The staggering total comes from $317 million in domestic sales and $712 million from international sales. It’s now in the top five fastest movies to reach that coveted number.
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Not even a “bomb cyclone” could stop Big Jim.
In its second week of release, James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water took home a solid $56 million at the domestic box office, bringing its total to $278 million, Variety reports. While those numbers aren’t exactly eye-popping, they’re pretty impressive when one takes into consideration all of the external factors that would theoretically deter people from going to the movies.
Along with the aforementioned inclement weather, the U.S. is also seeing a rise in COVID cases. But neither seem capable of slowing down Cameron’s latest, which seems primed to hit $1 billion globally by the end of the year. After just 10 days in theaters, Avatar: The Way of Water has already amassed $855.4 million around the world, which makes it the fifth-highest grossing movie of the year. If it does hit $1 billion by year’s end, it will join Top Gun: Maverick and Jurassic World: Dominion as the only movies to hit that mark in 2022.
One movie that definitely won’t hit that mark is Damien Chazelle’s period epic Babylon. Despite boasting a star-stacked cast that includes Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie, the over three-hour film only managed $3.5 million over the weekend, which is made worse by its reported $80 million budget. Babylon’s failure only makes Avatar’s success all the more impressive. The long-awaited sequel is further proof that Cameron simply knows what it takes to get people to the theater.
Cameron famously said that Avatar: The Way of Water needs to gross at least $2 billion to be profitable. And based on the way it’s going, it looks like it’ll hit that mark and then some.
