Only five other films have hit this metric — the original
"Avatar," "Avengers: Endgame," Cameron's
"Titanic," "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" and
"Avengers: Infinity War."
As of Sunday, "The Way of Water" had tallied $598
million from domestic ticket sales and $1.426 billion from foreign markets. The
film is the sixth highest-grossing film of all time and will likely move up in
the rankings as its run in theaters continues.
"The film has now joined that very exclusive box office
club and has made it look almost effortless," said Paul Dergarabedian,
senior media analyst at Comscore.
The box office has struggled to recover in the wake of the
pandemic, as audiences shifted to more at-home viewing and fewer films reached
the big screen. As the industry rebounds, films like "The Way of
Water" have proven that moviegoers are eager to return for big blockbuster
spectacles. And many are willing to pay for premium showings like IMAX or large
format screens that often come with a higher price tag.
While "The Way of Water" has had a more muted
showing than expected in China, the result of a spike in Covid numbers and
hospitalizations due to the virus, it has generated strong ticket sales from
France, Germany and Korea.
Reaching the $2 billion mark is a good sign for the Avatar
franchise, which has three more installments slated for release over the next
five years. It also meets the goal set by Cameron, who had previously said the
film would need to be the third or fourth highest-grossing film in history just
to break even.
"Keeping in line with Cameron's 'king of the box office
world' career trajectory it should come as no surprise that the justification
for completion of the director's vision for the world of Pandora is now
undeniably assured and given the stamp of approval by enthusiastic fans around
the globe," Dergarabedian said.
It is unclear what the film's production budget was,
although estimates range from $250 million to $350 million, not including
marketing costs.
"The Way of Water" should steadily continue to
generate box office receipts as it has no direct competition in theaters until
mid-February, when Marvel Studios' "Ant-Man and the Wasp:
Quantumania," another Disney production, is released.