The original Avatar may have released over a decade ago, but interest in James Cameron’s sci-fi franchise still appears to be extremely high. Twentieth Century Studios released the first trailer for Avatar: The Way of Water earlier this week, and the teaser managed to garner over 148 million views (with 23 million of those being from China alone), according to Disney and 20th Century. As noted by The Hollywood Reporter’s coverage, these numbers are more impressive than what all of the recent Star Wars films were able to rack up with their own respective trailers, an indication that Avatar is now a more popular franchise and that its sequel might have a chance of besting the original in the box office. Avatar has made over $2.84 billion worldwide since its release in 2009.
The teaser finished its first 24-hour online window with 148.6 million views, including 23 million from China alone, according to Disney and 20th Century.
That’s ahead of all recent Star Wars films, including Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Like Avatar 2, the teaser trailer for that film also played exclusively in theaters first.
Avatar 2’s views on YouTube and across social media don’t include the millions of people watching the teaser on the big screen before Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which opened to an enormous $187 million domestically and nearly $450 million overseas.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter