‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ passes ‘Titanic’ to become third biggest international release in history

James Cameron’s ‘Avatar: The Way of the Water’ has overtaken one of his other blockbuster films, ‘Titanic’, as the third highest-grossing film in history at the international box office.

The sci-fi sequel has now generated $1.538 million overseas, placing it only behind the first film in the franchise, ‘Avatar’, with $2.1 billion and ‘Avengers: Endgame’ with $1.9 billion.

The momentum for ‘The Way of Water’ continues into its eighth week at the global box office, grossing a total $2.174 billion worldwide and $636 million at the domestic box office.

On the global scale, the movie ranks as the fourth highest-grossing movie in history following, ‘Avatar’ with $2.92 billion, ‘Avengers: Endgame’ with $2.7 billion, and finally ‘Titanic’ with $2.19 billion. However, it’s likely to pass ‘Titanic’ in the next week or so, as it already has in other international categories.

Similar to its prequel, ‘The Way of Water’ ticket sales have been primarily IMAX and 3D screens. At the international box office, the top markets for the movie include China with $240.6 million, France with $141.5 million, Germany with $130.7 million, and Korea with $105.5 million.

Domestically, ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ is the 10th biggest movie just behind ‘Jurassic World’ at number nine with $653 million, ‘Titanic’ with $659 million, and ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ with $678 million.

What’s next for the franchise?

With the public interest in the Avatar franchise only increasing, a third installment of the story is set to debut in December 2024, with plans for a fourth and fifth installment expected to follow soon after.

According to Cameron, the lead character Jake Sully will be replaced as a voice-over narrator by different characters in each of the franchise’s upcoming sequels. The first narrator will be Jake’s son, Lo’ak.

In a podcast interview with Edith Bowman, Cameron shared some details about Avatar three.

“So I might find ways to sort of - now, he’s already the [narrator.] Oh, I’m giving something away here,” Cameron said after giving an important detail away. “Every one of the Avatars - but this is okay, I think it could be intriguing for people to think about what’s coming,”

“Jake was our voice over narrator for movie one and for movie two, and we have a different narrator for each of the subsequent films,” He continued. “We see it through the eyes of a different character and movie three is through Lo’ak’s eyes,”