Before the premiere of Avatar 2, Top Gun: Maverick will receive a theatrical rerelease. After years of rumors that Top Gun 2 would happen, Tom Cruise ultimately played Pete “Maverick” Mitchell again in 2022. Like Maverick himself, Cruise’s Top Gun sequel defied the odds by earning a staggering $1.48 billion at the global box office.
Top Gun: Maverick, which debuted to $160 million domestically over Memorial Day weekend and remained still in first place on Labor Day, did indeed rule the summer box office season. However, despite the film’s enormous box office success, Paramount decided to rerelease the instant classic in theatres from December 2 to December 15. That offers the Top Gun sequel an additional two weeks to boost its box office haul before James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water opens; this is the only movie opening during the holiday season with a chance to unseat Top Gun: Maverick as the year’s best film.
Will Top Gun 2’s Huge Box Office Take Be Beaten by Avatar 2?
With a domestic box office total of $749 million and a worldwide total of $2.7 billion, James Cameron’s 2009 picture Avatar is still among the highest-grossing movies of all time. After more than eleven years, Cameron finally released the eagerly anticipated Avatar 2. The sequel to the first Avatar, which came out more than ten years ago, is expected to make $150–175 million in its opening weekend. The real Avatar 2 bonanza is expected to occur at the global box office, where the sequel aims to surpass the first film’s all-time record.
Avatar 2 is almost certain to beat Top Gun: Maverick’s $1.48 billion global gross as a result of its enormous appeal. Indeed, Cameron thinks his Avatar sequel needs to generate at least that much to break even, and anything less than a $2 billion global take would be a letdown. Of course, it remains to be seen if Avatar 2 can match Maverick’s $716 million domestic box office haul. This holiday season, Avatar 2 does benefit from a level playing field as rival companies have cleaned house rather than risk being destroyed by James Cameron’s juggernaut. That might indicate that Cameron’s return to Pandora has a promising future.
Indeed, it will take a long run at the top for Avatar: The Way of Water to come close to the box office performances of Cruise and Top Gun: Maverick this summer. Top Gun 2, which won both bookend holidays, dominated the entire summer, as was already mentioned. It is unknown if Avatar 2 will have similar staying power, but history suggests that it will give that both the original Avatar and James Cameron’s Titanic held on for significant runs following their late-year releases. And if Avatar 2 wants a chance at duplicating Maverick’s legendary box office result, it will in fact need to dominate more than just the holiday weekend.