Avatar Becomes the First Film to Pass $2.9 Billion Worldwide

Credit: Avatar

Avatar makes history once again.

It’s been 13 years since the first Avatar dazzled audiences onscreen. James Cameron introduced the world to Pandora through Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), a paralyzed Marine who must navigate through these human/Na’vi hybrids through said Avatar to gain more knowledge about the alien world. However, Jake falls in love with a Na’vi woman (Zoe Saldana) and becomes vital for the survival of her world. Now, in truth, the story itself isn’t anything special; however, Avatar ignited the 3D craze due to the tremendous and revolutionary graphics that still hold a candle to the best-looking films in the past and present.

James Cameron created a movie that was made for the big screen and audiences agreed as Avatar became the highest-grossing film ever made, and within its 13-year time span, the only movie that has come close to Avatar’s $2.8 billion is Avengers: Endgame at a whopping $2.80 billion. Following the tremendous success of the first Avatar, Fox greenlighted not just one or two, but four more sequels to the box office hit. Since then, Avatar 2 has had several release dates going back to 2014; however, the feature was continuously delayed time and time again.

Credit: Avatar

However, after 13 years, Avatar: Way of the Water will finally release on December 16, 2022, with the synopsis of the film following the former Marine and Neytiri, who have formed a family and are determined to stay together. However, when danger arises, they must leave their homes and explore Pandora. There’s a war brewing against the humans, Jake, Neytiri, and the rest of Pandora must find a way to keep their planet safe. Though the sequel is less than five months away, there was some concern that audiences’ interest in the world of Pandora was waning given how long the sequels took to finally hit the big screen. While the jury is still out on the box office success of Avatar 2, Disney’s strategy to re-release the first film in theaters shows that the world still has an interest in Pandora.

Despite the heavily marketed (and controversial) Olivia Wilde film, Don’t Worry Darling, coming out on the same weekend as the rerelease, Avatar managed to squeeze out the win at a global box office of $30.5 million. Since then, Avatar has done a solid job of reminding audiences why they fell in love with the feature in the first place. Now, Avatar has managed to break another box office record, as the feature is the first film to pass the $2.9 billion mark worldwide. Domestically, Avatar has managed to collect an additional $18 million and another $39 million from overseas, officially pushing the move’s total to $2.905 billion.

Credit: Avatar