Avatar: Way Of Water cruises past The Force Awakens to become 4th biggest movie of all time

James Cameron now occupies three of the top four spots on the list of the planet's biggest movies

By William Hughes  |  January 28, 2023 | 6:35pm
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Avatar: Way Of Water cruises past The Force Awakens to become 4th biggest movie of all time
Avatar: The Way Of Water Photo: 20th Century Studios

James Cameron’s Avatar franchise creeps every closer to total domination of the planetary box office today, as Variety reports that Avatar: The Way Of Water has just passed Star Wars: The Force Awakens—the highest-grossing film in that particular franchise—in the all-time box office gross rankings. That puts Way Of Water, which recently cruised past $2 billion at the international box office, in fourth place overall, trailing behind Avengers: Endgame (at No. 2) and… two other James Cameron movies. (That’s Titanic, in third position, and the original Avatar, which reclaimed its spot at the top of the pile in March of 2021 when it returned to theaters in China, blowing past Avengers in the process.)

Way Of Water is currently in its seventh weekend in theaters, where it is, unsurprisingly, kicking all kinds of shit out of every other movie out there. (Condolences to Puss In Boots and his next-of-kin.) That includes a strong domestic performance—clocking in at a little more than $600 million to date— and a really strong international performance. The highlight of that big pile of planetary currency being a massive $229 million turnout in China, where it’s one of the first Disney movies to play in the country’s lucrative markets in some time.

As it happens, James Cameron told GQ back in November, ahead of his sequel’s release, that his “fucking expensive” movie would have to post these kinds of numbers to be anything other than a loss for the studio. “You have to be the third or fourth highest-grossing film in history,” he noted at the time. “That’s your threshold. That’s your break even.” And break even it now, apparently has; we have to assume that Disney officials are now feeling at least a little less apprehensive about having three more of these things on their docket.

 
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