James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water is already off to a great start at the Indian box office. On its opening day, Friday, the film collected around ₹ 38-40 crore.
That means it beats the opening collections of Avengers: Infinity War and Spider-Man: No Way Home. However, it still couldn’t top the biggest Hollywood opener the country has ever seen, Avengers: Endgame.
Avengers: Infinity War collected ₹31 crores on its first day and Spider-Man: No Way Home collected ₹32 crores. Avengers: Endgame stood tall above them all with an opening of ₹53 crores. Avatar Part 1 is still the biggest film in the world with a total collection of $2.9 billion.
Avatar: The Way of Water follows the story of a moon called Pandora and the colonization that threatens the indigenous humanoid race of Na’vi that inhabit it. 80% of critics recommend it, according to the review site RottenTomatoes.com, with Nell Minow of Movie Mom calling it “more of an experience than a movie, but a fun place to visit.”
Avatar: The Way of Water received rave reviews from critics just like its predecessor. Everything is expected to go extremely well in the coming weeks. However, it should be noted that currently the price for a normal IMAX seat also goes up to ₹2,500.
In the US, it took in $17 million in advance ticket sales on Thursday, a solid but not spectacular start for one of the most expensive films in Hollywood history. The film earned an additional $50.4 million in international markets in its first two days, Disney said in a statement Friday.
The film is expected to gross $145 million to $179 million in U.S. and Canadian theaters through Sunday and hundreds of millions more globally, according to prognosticator Boxoffice Pro. That would still place it alongside the biggest films of the year and would be a much-needed boost to theaters still struggling to bounce back from the pandemic.
The film will have one of the biggest releases in Disney history, debuting on more than 12,000 screens in the US and Canada and 40,000 internationally. It is released globally at the same time in every country, which is a rarity in the industry.
A large number of screens will be critical to getting more people to see the film, as its three-hour-plus length limits the number of screenings per day, notes Comscore Inc.’s chief media analyst. Paul Dergarabedian.