Only in our current timeline would a movie scoring a global opening weekend north of $400 million lead to accusations that it’s a box office disaster waiting to happen, but James Cameron and Avatar: The Way of Water tend to be held to their own unique set of standards.
Topping the domestic charts with a strong $134 million, the long-awaited return to Pandora may not have smashed through the half-billion barrier that was being predicted as recently as last week, but let’s not overlook the fact we’re talking about a sci-fi epic that runs for over three hours and demands to be seen in 3D at the very least, if not with the additional benefit of IMAX as well.
That means less screenings on daily basis, but even then, The Way of Water‘s opening frame was a mighty impressive one. However, thanks to the all-encompassing hype and the desire on the part of many folks to tear down the franchise, the discourse has already led to accusations that the Avatar sequel can be called a disappointment.
Looking at the facts, Cameron’s Titanic and the first Avatar showed incredible legs at the box office, with their respective opening weekends counting for only a fraction of each film’s total earnings, which we should remind you combined for roughly $5 billion.
Is The Way of Water going to fly that high? Maybe, maybe not, but we’ll need at least a month if not longer to be able to make an educated guess as to how far it can go, because trying to write off the constantly game-changing director after a mere 72 hours is positively nuts.