Tom Cruise’s “Top Gun: Maverick” easily took on “Jurassic World”, “Minions” and a trio of films from Marvel. But in the end, it was no match for James Cameron. “Avatar: The Way of Water” has surpassed “Maverick’s” box office haul in just its first three weeks in theaters, raking in an astonishing $1.51 billion worldwide since Dec. 16 according to Box Office Mojo data.
Box office watchers don’t expect “Avatar 2” to slow down any time soon. The film has a clear runway to continue raking in ticket sales and is expected to have a firm grip on IMAX, Dolby and other premium display formats until the release of “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” next month.
It’s welcome news for Cameron, who in the run-up to the film’s release claimed that it would need to earn at least $2 billion just to break even. Along with the original “Avatar” ($2.92 billion) and “Titanic” ($2.2 billion), Cameron has now directed three of the 10 biggest blockbusters ever.
“I really wonder what kind of legs it will develop now that we’re out of the holidays,” Shawn Robbins, chief analyst at BoxOffice.com tells CNBC Make It. “The first movie famously just kept going and going and going.”
″[James Cameron] built a career on movies that have a slow burn at the box office, and it really is on display again with the sequel,” he adds.
