Avatar: The Way of Water has delivered an unsurprising hit opening weekend that has broken one of Spider-Man: No Way Home's post-pandemic records.
As Black Panther: Wakanda Forever winds down the peak of its run, a new challenger is entering the ring with Avatar 2. Following up on the highest-grossing movie of all time, director James Cameron has a lot to live up to, and expectations are running high after a visually spectacular trailer and promotional campaign.
Of course, the theater industry is not quite what it used to be after suffering through the pandemic, but Top Gun 2 and No Way Home proved movies can still break records and have overwhelming success. But can Avatar 2 do the same? Well, after smashing one record, things are looking rather positive.
Avatar 2 Dominates Its Box Office Opening
Having grossed $53M domestically on the Friday opening, Avatar 2 took home $76.7M overseas, overtaking No Way Home's $67.2M and Doctor Strange 2's $53.6M to become the biggest of the post-pandemic era.
The impressive opening resulted in a total of $127.1M international gross, and $180.1M global result. The Way of Water is now eyeing a $290M-$300M 5-day opening overseas, for a total global result of $415M-$435M.
Despite these record-breaking overseas results, the domestic number of $53M - including $17M in previews - is somewhat underwhelming. This placed the sequel as the 44th biggest domestic opening of all-time and only the 6th-biggest Friday of the pandemic era, just surpassing the $52M of Top Gun: Maverick.