'Avatar 2' Approaches $900M Despite Brutal Weather At North American Box Office

AFP

KEY POINTS

"Avatar: The Way Of Water" struggled to perform well at the North American box office this weekend
The bomb cyclone and COVID-19 concerns kept moviegoers from hitting the cinemas over the holidays
The overall revenue of all movies for Christmas Day was $34.4 million, the worst in at least two decades

"Avatar: The Way Of Water" is not letting the bad weather take away its spotlight this holiday season. The highly anticipated sequel is on its way to crossing the $900 million mark in the latest global box office update.

Even though the brutal Storm Elliott is making holiday moviegoing at the North American box office pretty challenging and even impossible in many places, "Avatar 2" still impressed analysts with its latest ticket sales all over the world, The Hollywood Reporter said Sunday.

Traditionally, the Christmas season is one of the most lucrative times for Hollywood films. But the bomb cyclone and the ongoing concerns about COVID-19 and other respiratory viruses put a dent in ticket sales this weekend.

The reported overall revenue for Christmas Day was only $34.4 million, the worst in at least two decades without counting 2020 when the pandemic started and put the world at a standstill. For comparison, box office sales on Dec. 25 last year were $58.1 million.

Thus far, James Cameron's new film has already accumulated a domestic total of $253.7 million. Globally, the big-budget tentpole has already earned $855.4 million and is expected to cross $900 million soon. Studios are looking to next week to make up for lost ground, and the same goes for "Avatar 2."

A week ago, the sci-fi flick was reported to be nearing the $500 million mark in worldwide box office sales. Expectations are high for the film to match the record of 2009's original "Avatar," which earned $750 million in the U.S. and over $2.7 billion worldwide throughout its run.

While "The Way Of Water" continued to sit at the top of the domestic box office, DreamWorks Animation and Universal's "Puss in Boots: The Last Wish" did not have a hard time securing the second spot with its $17.8 million four-day holiday gross and $24.7 million six-day opening from 4,099 theaters.

Meanwhile, the "Avatar 2" screenwriters recently talked about splitting the script into two films because they had written "too much material" for the sequel. Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver said Cameron ultimately decided to split the script they made into two movies.