Cameron has always landed on the side of fun directors. That isn’t to say his movies aren’t deep or don’t have thematic elements that elevate them above the competition, it’s just that the man has always had an eye for what audiences want, be it the killer robots of the Terminator franchise or the love story anchoring the heart of Titanic. With the Avatar films, he’s once again hit on the button audiences love and created what feels like one of the last, true blockbuster franchises. Not tied to pre-existing IP like superhero films, Avatar: The Way of Water has dominated a landscape and a holiday season that has seen film going dry up compared to previous years. Even his fellow directors like Steven Spielberg have not hit like they used to.
Film Updates is keeping tabs on the movie’s earnings and recently announced Avatar: The Way of Water is expected to cross $1 billion ten days from December 21. It’s sure to be welcome news not only for those who engage in the blockbuster horse race but for fans of the franchise who wanted to see Cameron get to finish out his opus. Per CNBC, Avatar: The Way of Water has earned over $600 million worldwide, and its second weekend in theaters will clarify if the film has the legs to meet Cameron’s $2 billion goal.
While movies based on comic books have dominated the landscape, the glut of them has seen their box office dwindle a bit. That’s not to say that they aren’t still money mints, but the constant infighting on the side of DC has seen things like Black Adam collapse in on itself like a black hole and the massive number of Disney Plus series has made the barrier of entry to the recent Marvel Studios slate dozens of hours longer. And while someone like Spielberg - the granddaddy of the modern blockbuster starting with 1975’s Jaws and continuing through the Indiana Jones and Jurassic Park franchises - has turned introspective, with Ready Player One being a jaunt through the franchises he or people he helped get their starts to create, West Side Story being a remake he was inspired to make since childhood, and The Fabelmans being a fictionalized version of that childhood, Cameron hasn’t. He’s content just crashing his toys together, the lanky blue Na’vi versus the space marines he’s so fond of squashing.
It’s refreshing for audiences to take in a huge, colorful new mega-spectacle, something that has to be seen on the big screen to be fully enjoyed, in a world where that feels rarer and rarer. It’s the type of movie audiences have been craving and that Cameron knows how to serve up well. Avatar: The Way of Water is a gigantic type of blockbuster, even in length, that hasn’t been seen since Peter Jackson was dropping a new Lord of the Rings film into theaters every Christmas back in the early 2000s. Cameron has honed his craft, and Avatar: The Way of Water is on its way to the $1 billion mark because of it.
Avatar: The Way of Water is in theaters now.
MORE: Avatar: Using Sci-fi Tropes Differently
Source: Film Updates/Twitter, CNBC
