Avatar 2 surpasses Top Gun: Maverick as the highest-grossing film of 2022 with worldwide grossing of $1.5 billion
Ticket sales for Walt Disney Co.’s Avatar: The Way of Water has hit the $1.52 billion mark, making it the highest-grossing film released in 2022.
The sci-fi epic, directed by James Cameron, grossed $33.8 million worldwide, according to an estimate by Disney on Wednesday.
The result puts the film ahead of Paramount Global’s Top Gun: Maverick, the Tom Cruise action film, which has generated nearly $1.49 billion in ticket sales since its debut in May. That includes a two-week re-release in theaters in December. loner made less than half of its sales from overseas — and never opened in China — during the avatar Sequel scored 69% internationally, with China produced $169 million alone.
The way of the waterDisney’s success stretches to defend Burbank, California-based Disney’s vision for the Avatar franchise, which will see sequels every two years through 2028. Disney acquired the Avatar rights as part of its $71 billion purchase of 20th Century Fox in 2019.
Cameron’s original avatar, released in 2009, is the highest-grossing film of all time, grossing $2.9 billion. like this picture, The way of the water started off strong but not spectacular before picking up steam over the coming weeks. On four weekdays between Christmas and New Year, the film grossed around $300 million, more than most pictures generate in a year.
According to Kevin Near, an analyst with Bloomberg Intelligence, the slowing economy and the film’s length of over three hours discouraged many people from seeing it immediately after its December 16 release.
“I really suspect there’s a large group of consumers out there who were just trying to make it to Christmas before taking their family to see it,” he said.
Now it is checked whether The way of the water can continue to generate these types of sales as consumers return to work and students go back to school. The film benefits from a film release schedule with little competition, notes Rosenblatt Securities analyst Barton Crockett. Those box office numbers should allow the film to be profitable for Disney despite its high production costs.
“I bet the movie can make money at that point,” Crockett said.
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