While James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water is about to visit theatres, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is still dominating the US box office for the fifth week in a row.
Variety reports that Wakanda Forever is in first place at the box office during one of 2022’s lowest-earning weekends. Wakanda Forever has already grossed $2.8 million from its Friday ticket sales, contributing to the estimated $38.5 million in ticket sales for all current theatrical releases over the course of three days. The total weekend revenue for the Marvel Studios sequel is predicted to total $11 million.
Wakanda Forever has made a total of $401 million at the American box office since its November release; it has now surpassed the total revenues for Thor: Love and Thunder and will shortly exceed Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness ($411 million). With this, the Black Panther sequel will surpass Top Gun: Maverick as the year’s second-highest domestic release.
The events of the 2009 film Avatar are continued in the planned sequel Avatar: The Way of Water, which stars Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana in their respective roles as Jake Sulley and Neytiri. Sigourney Weaver and Stephen Lang, who plays Colonel Quaritch, are further returning cast members.
The sequel to Avatar, which allegedly cost between $350 million and $400 million to produce, is among the most costly movies ever created. Avatar is still the highest-grossing movie of all time. Cameron has said that The Way of Water will need to earn more than $2 billion worldwide to break even. Already, analysts predict that The Way of Water’s domestic launch will fall between $150 million and $200 million, which would be expected to quadruple the box office debut of the first movie.