'Avatar: The Way of Water' box office: James Cameron's film tops $2 bn worldwide

James Cameron's directorial 'Avatar: The Way of Water' has raked in a whopping $2 billion at the global box office and has gone on to become another hit franchise for Walt Disney Co. The sci-fi film’s box office sales hit $2.024 billion on Sunday, of which around $1.4 billion comes from international markets outside the US and Canada.

With these numbers, 'Avatar 2' has become the sixth highest-grossing movie of all time. Cameron had earlier said the film needs to collect $2 billion at the box office to break even. The film has reportedly been made on a budget of $250 million to $350 million.

'Avatar 2' has collected a total of $598 million in the US so far. In India, the film has collected a total of Rs 387.82 crore in terms of net collections and Rs 473.14 crore in terms of gross collections, according to Sacnilk. 'Avatar 2' focuses on Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana as Jake Sully and Neytiri 10 years after the events of the first movie.

Senior media analyst at Comscore Paul Dergarabedian told news agency Reuters, “Any time you are in the billions you are in the pantheon of top franchises.”

Jake and Neytiri are now parents of five children. The film features Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Kate Winslet, Sigourney Weaver, Brendan Cowell and Jack Champion in key roles.

Cameron has directed three of the top six films of all time– 'Avatar', 'Avatar: The Way of Water', and 'Titanic'. 'Avatar' collected $2.9 billion in global ticket sales and continues to remain the highest-grossing film in history.

Meanwhile, 'Avatar 3' is scheduled to release in theatres in December next year whereas the fourth and the fifth instalments are scheduled for December 2026 and December 2028.

(With agency inputs)

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