Avatar: The Way of Water swims past Top Gun: Maverick to become the biggest release of 2022

After tabulating totals from yesterday’s box office, James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water is ready to add another milestone to its list of achievements. The running total through Wednesday’s box office is $1,516.5M, signaling a victory over Top Gun: Maverick as the top worldwide release of 2022. In addition to lapping Top Gun: Maverick at the box office, Cameron’s Avatar sequel is now the No. 10 biggest movie ever, globally speaking.

Avatar: The Way of Water is the No. 9 biggest movie internationally. Additionally, Avatar 2 is Europe’s highest-grossing movie of the pandemic era, surpassing Spider-Man: No Way Home. Finally, Avatar 2 is Europe’s No. 5 biggest release of all time. Can you picture Cameron rubbing his spindly hands together in satisfaction? I sure can.

Since Avatar: The Way of Water has been in theaters for a few weeks, analysts wonder which movie could bump Cameron’s sci-fi sequel from the top of the chart. James Wan’s PG-13 horror movie M3GAN opens this weekend, but despite ultra-positive reviews, the killer doll is unlikely to push the Na’vi to second place. The staggering thing about Avatar: The Way of Water is the film has yet to see much drop-off since its release. That’s not counting the film’s underwhelming domestic debut.

According to JoBlo’s own Brad Hamerly, M3GAN will likely earn $17 million for the weekend. While pre-sale tickets for M3GAN could be more impressive, horror movies tend to live and die by word of mouth. For M3GAN, the film has received a massive bump in promotion, thanks to TikTok, with subscribers recreating the doll’s dance sequence from the trailer. Pre-dating the uber-viral Wednesday dance trend, young horror fans can’t seem to get enough of M3GAN’s sweet moves. Will the popularity of the trend translate into tickets sold? We shall see.

Are you surprised by the runaway success of Avatar: The Way of Water? Do you think Cameron will continue making films for the franchise beyond the planned installments? Where do you land on an evil fire tribe joining the fray in Avatar 3? Feel free to let us know in the comments.