Avatar: The Way of Water has achieved IMAX’s third-highest second weekend at the box office ever. The sequel to Avatar has reached $97 million at the IMAX box office, meeting the high expectations placed on its performance.
IMAX’s CEO has claimed Avatar: The Way of Water will continue to perform well at the box office as it heads towards $100 million. “Avatar: The Way of Water is showing the strong endurance at the global box office we expected, particularly with its phenomenal performance internationally where several key markets grew their grosses over opening weekend,” CEO of IMAX Richard Gelfond said. “In just over a week of release, Avatar: The Way of Water is already sailing toward $100 million in IMAX box office with no signs of slowing down, as our screens remain the destination of choice to experience this one-of-a-kind film.”
Despite holiday theater closures over the weekend in many markets, the film starring Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldaña has brought in well over $27.6 million in its second weekend. This figure is from IMAX global theaters alone, which represents just 12.3% of the overall weekend box office. It is predicted that James Cameron’s highly-anticipated sequel will hit $82 million overall for its second-weekend tally, bringing its domestic total to $278 million.
The film has done well across IMAX theaters in both North America and international markets. Despite bad weather and freezing temperatures, North American theaters accounted for $9.5 million of IMAX box office revenue this weekend, indexing at 17%. Domestically, the accumulated total has reached $34.4 million. International markets have generated $18.1 million this weekend, pushing the international IMAX cume to $62.8 million. China raked in $5.8 million, with IMAX accounting for 26.2% of the total with its $25.8 million cume. This comes despite China facing its own difficulties in terms of the wave of COVID-19 cases currently sweeping through the nation. Meanwhile, five countries, including top markets France (+4%) and South Korea (+2%), brought in more than they did in the film’s opening weekend, whilst forty countries have produced Top 10 IMAX box office results after only 10–12 days of release. Avatar: The Way of Water is now currently the biggest IMAX title to date in five countries, including France and Turkey, and has achieved the Top 5 status in an additional fifteen countries.
Avatar: The Way of Water is set approximately ten years after the events of the original film (2009). The film sees Jake Sully (Worthington) and Neytiri (Saldaña) relocate their young family to an ocean dwelling in light of a new threat. The film also stars Sigourney Weaver (as Kiri), Stephen Lang (Quaritch), Kate Winslet (Ronal), Cliff Curtis (Tonowari), Joel David Moore (Norm), CCH Pounder (Mo’at), Edie Falco (General Ardmore), Jamie Flatters (Neteyam), Britain Dalton (Lo’ak), Trinity Jo-Li Bliss (Tuk), Jack Champion (Spider), and Bailey Bass (Tsireya) among others. Written and directed by Cameron (with Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver also writing), the film was executive produced by Richard Baneham, David Valdes, and Peter M. Tobyansen, and produced by Cameron and Jon Landau.
Avatar: The Way of Water is currently playing in theatres worldwide. In the meantime, check out our interview with Worthington, Lang and Landau below: