Box office: ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ passes ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ to become 7th highest-grossing movie domestically

This week, James Cameron’s “Avatar: The Way of Water” – a blockbuster that has remained in the Top 10 at the box office for 15 weeks since opening before Christmas 2022 – passed Marvel and Disney’s “Avengers: Infinity War” to become the seventh highest-grossing movie domestically.

A few months ago, it didn’t seem possible that “The Way of Water,” which won the Oscar for Best Visual Effects earlier this month, would get to $700 million just from North America, but with the $168,363 it made on Thursday, it has now reached $679 million in North America. That surpasses the $678.8 million made by “Infinity War” in 2018.

We’re now looking at another $21 million needed to achieve the $700 million grossed by “Black Panther” also in 2018. Maybe that would seem unreachable considering how little “Avatar” is making on a day-to-day basis, but if you look at the original “Avatar,” it made over $40 million between April 1 and the end of its run in theaters.

The first “Avatar” also won far more Oscars and was making nearly twice as much daily as “Way of the Water,” but I strongly believe that Disney will do its best to give the movie some sort of IMAX re-release when possible this summer to help it hit that next milestone. (To be fair, “Black Panther” was also released by Disney, so maybe there isn’t that much need to best its amazing box office showing, but Disney knows that Cameron has more “Avatar” in the works.)

We’re now looking at a scenario where not only does James Cameron have three of the top 10 biggest domestic blockbusters of all time — “Avatar,” “Avatar: The Way of Water” and “Titanic” — but also one where Walt Disney has six movies in said Top 10.

That’s not even taking into account that “Way of the Water” has already become Cameron’s third movie to surpass $2.2 billion worldwide, having grossed close to $100 million more than “Titanic’s” worldwide take in 1997-98.

“Avatar 3,” currently subtitled “The Seed Bearer,” is scheduled for December 20, 2024 with two more sequels planned, so we’re likely to be having some of these same conversations in two years if Cameron can maintain the quality of the first two movies.

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