Why Everyone is Underestimating Avatar 2's Box Office Potential
James Cameron's Avatar is still the highest-grossing movie of all time, but that's not stopping detractors from underestimating Avatar: The Way of Water's ability to follow in its footsteps. The industry has changed significantly since the release of the first Avatar in 2009 with the rise of the MCU, the return of Star Wars, and an onslaught of major IP movies into the top 10 grossing movies of all time, but a closer examination of Avatar's (and James Cameron's Titanic's) box office behavior, it becomes clear just how backward these comparisons are.
Cameron first arrived on the top 10 box office list after the release of 1997's Titanic, setting a record so high no other movies even came within a billion dollars of until Cameron's next movie, Avatar, over a decade later. Avatar surpassed Titanic's box office by over half a billion dollars, once again setting a record no other movies could touch, while Titanic maintained a secure grip on the second place rank until Avengers: Endgame in 2019. While Endgame initially crept past Avatar's box office total, a 2021 re-release pushed Avatar back into the top spot once more (with another major re-release coming before the release of Avatar 2 to shore up that lead).
Related: Avatar Might Become The First Movie To Set A Crazy Box Office Record
The continued dominance of Cameron's box office behemoths is undeniable, but they're both products of a pre-MCU era, and now almost half of the top 10 grossing movies of all time are a part of the MCU, with other franchise sequels and reboots making up the rest of the list. This surge of franchise IP to the top of the box office is hard to beat, especially when Avatar, despite its financial success, just doesn't have the kind of branding value
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