The long-awaited second Avatar movie, Avatar: The Way of Water, will be released to theaters this month on December 16th. The movie will need to make 2 billion dollars in box office sales in order for Disney, the producer of the movie, to break even.
The original movie made 2.9 billion dollars in box office sales when it was released in 2009. When adjusted for inflation, the movie would have made 3.5 billion dollars in 2022, meaning that if Avatar: The Way of Water performs as well as the original movie it will easily gross the 2 billion dollars necessary to break even. Nevertheless, the question remains, will Avatar: The Way of Water performs as well as the original?
The movie’s director, James Cameron, definitely thinks so; he himself said, “I think this movie will make all the fucking money.” When Cameron was asked about the original movie’s success, he spoke candidly, “I think anybody that’s seen the movie knows why; it’s a fucking gigantic adventure that’s an all-consuming emotional experience that leaves you wrung out by the end of the movie. And it was groundbreaking visually, and it still holds up today. So I don’t think I need a theory.”
In an interview with GQ magazine, he was asked about the movie’s huge price tag. He told the interviewer he had confidently told the studio Avatar: The Way of Water was “‘the worst business case in movie history.’” Despite the cost of production, he showed no apprehension and told production, “‘you have to be the third or fourth highest-grossing film in history. That’s your threshold. That’s your break-even.’”The movie’s release has been shrouded in secrecy, with little information released to the public. Many have pointed out that thirteen years since the original’s release, Avatar: The Way of Water, lacks the relevancy necessary to perform well. Either way, in under a month, it will become clear if Avatar: The Way of Water will live up to its predecessor.
