It’s been two months since Avatar: The Way of Water released in theaters, but audiences can’t seem to get enough of the three-hour trip back to Pandora. According to numbers that various publications shared over the weekend, James Cameron’s sequel has now earned more than $2.244 billion, bringing it above 1997’s Titanic, now bumped to fourth place with $2,243,134,099, per figures posted by Box Office Mojo. Cameron can now say that he’s responsible for two of the top-three highest-grossing films of all time that happen to be of the same franchise, although it remains to be seen whether Avatar: The Way of Water will be able to beat Avengers: Endgame and its $2.799 billion.
From a Deadline report:
Overseas, Avatar 2 has made $1.586 billion to its domestic take of $658.4M. The Presidents Day weekend made Avatar 2 the ninth highest movie ever at the domestic box office, overtaking Universal’s 2015 Jurassic World‘s $653.4M. However, Avatar 2 in this go-round, especially this late in its theatrical release at ten weekends looks unlikely to beat Cameron’s Titanic stateside (No. 8 on the domestic list) which counts a lifetime total through this weekend of $672.1M. In sum, Avatar 2 is going to need a theatrical re-release if it’s going to best Titanic stateside.
This past weekend in the U.S./Canada, Avatar 2 ranked second behind Ant-Man 3 with $6.3M and a 4-day of $7.5M. The movie had to give up its Dolby screens to Universal’s Knock at the Cabin three weekends ago, but had to cede all of its premium ticket venues to Disney’s own Marvel Studios threequel.