Any worries of Avatar: The Way of Water failing to perform at the box office are a dim and distant memory, as the James Cameron epic surpassed $850 million at the worldwide box office and jumped to fifth place on the highest grossing movies of 2022. This puts the movie above recent Marvel release Black Panther: Wakanda Forever by over $80 million, thanks in the main to a strong international box office.

One of the biggest factors in Avatar: The Way of Water’s success overseas has been its release in China, even though the audience numbers did not quite match projections for the areas. However, with many of this year’s blockbusters not receiving a Chinese release at all, any money gained from the release was going to be a boost to the Avatar sequel’s totals.

So far this year only two releases have topped $1 billion; Top Gun: Maverick and Jurassic World: Dominion. With Avatar: The Way of Water having pulled in over $56 million during its second weekend there is little doubt that the film will very quickly move up beyond Jurassic World: Dominion to become the second highest grossing movie of the year. The real question is whether the film has enough legs to topple the mighty Top Gun: Maverick, and currently there is every possibility of that happening.

Related: Audience Rotten Tomatoes Score Hails Avatar: The Way of Water as Hugely Superior to Avatar

How Did Avatar 2’s Less Than Predicted Opening Weekend Make No Difference To Its Success?

Avatar Glowing
20th Century/Lightstorm Entertainment

When the original projections for Avatar: The Way of Water’s opening weekend were revealed, the movie was expected to make a potential $180 million at the domestic box office. When all was said and done, that number ended up being $134 million, leaving a huge deficit of almost $50 million. However, the international box office certainly made up for this with a $301 million haul, and additionally the second week drop-off has been substantially lower than the likes of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and the film has attracted a larger number of ticket sales coming from premium IMAX and 3D formats.

This means that while Avatar: The Way of Water’s box office may not have gotten off to the same domestic start as some of the biggest movies of the year, it has reminded everyone that the route to success is a marathon and not a sprint. With audience reviews being mostly positive for the sequel, the word of mouth effect also needs to be factored into the future earning potential of the film.

For James Cameron, this is as much of a guarantee as possible that he will get his wish to make all of his planned sequels, and potentially could even extend the franchise beyond Avatar 5. With much of Avatar 3’s filming being completed even before Avatar: The Way of Water was released, this will come as a relief for everyone involved in the movie’s production.

Avatar: The Way of Water is out now in cinemas worldwide.