The long-awaited sequel Avatar: The Way of Water ought to open to not less than $150 million-$170 million when crusing into North American theaters on Dec. 16, in line with early monitoring. And these are conservative estimates.
Directed by James Cameron,The Way of Water hits the large display extra 13 years after Avatar made historical past in changing into the top-grossing movie of all time on the international field workplace, a crown it nonetheless wears at the moment with greater than $2.92 billion in ticket gross sales, counting re-releases and never adjusted for inflation. That features a home tally of $785.2 million.
More bullish observers consider the Christmas hall tentpole has a shot at changing into solely the fourth December tentpole to cross $200 million in its opening weekend behind final yr’s Spider-Man: No Way Home ($260.1 million), 2015’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens ($248 million) and 2017’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi ($220 million). One distinction: these movies have been all fanboy occasions, whereas the primary Avatar was extra of a gradual burn.
Cameron’s groundbreaking film opened to $77 million over the Dec. 18-20 weekend in 2009, after which loved extraordinary legs.
Other variables: The Way of Water is half-hour longer than Avatar, or three hours and 10 minutes, that means the sequel can have fewer showtimes.
Avatar 2 hopes to affix an elite membership of longer Hollywood tentpoles which have accomplished blockbuster enterprise in theaters, together with Avengers: Endgame (three hours and a pair of minutes) and Cameron’s Titanic (three hours and 14 minutes). The two movies rank No. 2 and No. 3, respectively, on Comscore’s record of the top-grossing motion pictures of all time on the worldwide field workplace behind Avatar, not adjusted for inflation.
Disney inherited the Avatar franchise when shopping for up 21th Century Fox, together with twentieth Century.
Cameron produced the sequel alongside his longtime Lightstorm companion Jon Landau. It stars Zoe Saldaña, Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver and Stephen Lang.
In September of this yr, Disney and twentieth Century issued a remastered model of the primary Avatar with a purpose to prime audiences for the sequel. The rerelease grossed a powerful $76 million-plus on the international field workplace, bringing the movie’s present gross to greater than $2.92 billion.
Way of Water as soon as once more facilities on Worthington’s Sully and Saldaña’s Na’vi character, Neytiri. It picks up a decade after the unique and follows their household, with extra stars, together with franchise newcomers Vin Diesel and Kate Winslet.
In addition to approaching monitoring on Wednesday morning, Disney mentioned Tuesday night time that The Way of Water has landed a coveted China launch on Dec. 16.
