Avatar 2 Has Beaten Marvel’s Biggest Movie
Avatar 2, in its climb up the box office rankings, has surpassed Avengers: Endgame in India, becoming the top-grossing movie in the history of the country.
After the original Avatar film reclaimed its throne as the highest-grossing movie of all time, Avatar: The Way of Water has been absolutely dominating at the box office. After beating Top Gun: Maverick and then Jurassic World at the international box office, Avatar 2 has been slowly climbing the box office records. While it’s still only #7 at the international box office, the film has toppled Avengers: Endgame in India (via Movieweb)as the country’s highest-grossing film of all time.
Avatar 2, which made enough money last week to continue the franchise into a third, fourth, and fifth movie, has made $56.6 million in India so far. This sum is significantly higher than the $53.6 million that Avengers: Endgame made — the film that was previously India’s top-grossing movie.
When counting worldwide box office receipts, however, Avengers: Endgame still sits far higher than Avatar 2. The film, which ended Phase Three of the Marvel Cinematic, made just under $2.8 billion worldwide. The sequel to Avatar has a long way to go before it can hope to pass that number, having made $1.75 billion since its release just under a month ago.
The film, which is a direct sequel to 2009’s Avatar, follows the transformed Jake Sully and his family as they attempt to stop humans from colonizing the alien world Pandora. Avatar 2 has received a respectable (but not amazing) Tomatometer score of 77%, with praise mostly directed at the movie’s breathtaking visual effects rather than its narrative prowess.
While Avatar 2 continues to make money hand over fist, its initial momentum seems to be slowing down, making it less likely that it will surpass Avengers: Endgame. Domestically, the film was averaging about $20 million per day for the first few weeks after its initial release but has slowed in recent days to make roughly $4 million a day. It was even beaten out by the well-received Sci-fi horror film M3GAN on Friday, January 6th.
Avatar 2’s international box office numbers are still high, with the latest weekend numbers showing the film making tens of millions of dollars in France, Germany, and China. But to gain the additional $1.1 billion the movie needs to surpass Endgame, the movie would need to continue its current pace for more than a month without losing any steam.
While Avatar 2 might never beat Avengers: Endgame at the international box office, it still stands a chance of climbing the ranks of top-grossing films. The film is currently ranked #7 under Spider-Man: No Way Home, and needs to make an additional $160 million to take its spot. From there, it would need another $132 million to take the #5 spot from Avengers: Infinity War, and $21 million on top of that to beat out Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
Regardless of how well Avatar 2 does from here, the release of its next sequels is guaranteed. Avatar 3, which has already completely finished filming, will release on December 20, 2024. Avatar 4 is set to come out on December 18, 2026.
