In the wake of last weekend’s Cameron-on-Cameron violence at the box-office, the Na’vi have emerged as the victors over the RMS Titanic.
Cameron’s “Avatar: The Way of Water” has now racked up $2.243 billion globally, taking over the $2.242 billion made by Cameron’s 1997 epic “Titanic” to become the third highest-grossing movie of all time at the worldwide box office.
“Titanic” was re-released in theaters last week to celebrate the film’s 25th anniversary – in the process increasing its lead over ‘The Way of Water’ just as it was about to be overtaken by the space sequel.
However, that re-release has cooled off enough that the continued steady performance of the “Avatar” follow-up has overtaken it. Cameron now holds the record of having directed three of the top four highest-grossing movies worldwide in history with the first “Avatar” at $2.9 billion and still in the top spot.
The only non-Cameron challenger is Joe and Anthony Russo’s “Avengers: Endgame” with $2.8 billion in second place. On the domestic front, the “Avatar” sequel overtook “Jurassic World” to become the ninth-biggest film of all time with $657 million.
The success has also helped Disney’s box office domination in 2023 with the studio already clearing the $1 billion mark globally just six weeks into 2023 – ticket sales now at $1.283 billion to date ($383 domestic/$900 international).
That figure is a combination of the repeat or latter week business of “Avatar: The Way of Water” combined with this weekend’s launch of Marvel’s “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” which is coming in ahead of expectations and looks to be racking up $225 million globally in its opening weekend.
Source: Variety
