'Avatar: the Way of Water' Beats 'The Force Awakens', Becomes 4th Highest-Grossing Film Ever
Avatar: The Way of Water "has passed Star Wars: The Force Awakens as the fourth highest-grossing movie of all time," reports Variety:Director James Cameron's sci-fi epic has now earned $2.075 billion at the global box office. Star Wars: The Force Awakens, another sci-fi sequel released long after previous installments, finished its theatrical run with $2.064 billion after hitting theaters in December 2015. With this latest box office milestone, Cameron now has three of the top four highest-grossing movies in history - the original Avatar is still the champion [with $2.92 billion], while Titanic sits in third place [with $2.2 billion]. [The second-highest grossing film of all time is Avengers: Endgame with $2.79 billion.] Avatar: The Way of Water has quickly moved up in the record books, surpassing Spider-Man: No Way Home ($1.92 billion) on Jan. 18 and Avengers: Infinity War ($2.05 billion) shortly after on Jan. 26.... A third "Avatar" entry has already been set for release in December 2024 and there are plans for a fourth and fifth to continue the intergenerational saga Some context from The A.V. Club:The highlight of that big pile of planetary currency being a massive $229 million turnout in China, where it's one of the first Disney movies to play in the country's lucrative markets in some time. As it happens, James Cameron told GQ back in November, ahead of his sequel's release, that his "fucking expensive" movie would have to post these kinds of numbers to be anything other than a loss for the studio. "You have to be the third or fourth highest-grossing film in history," he noted at the time. "That's your threshold. That's your break even." Wikipedia points out that when box office figures are adjusted for inflation, the highest-grossing film of all time is still the 1939 Civil War drama Gone with the Wind. And the next top-grossing films of all-time?The original Avatar Titanic The original Star Wars (1977) Avengers: Endgame The Sound of Music (1965) E.T. the Extra Terrestrial (1982) The Ten Commandments (1956) Doctor Zhivago (1965) Star Wars: the Force Awakens
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