‘Avatar: The Sense of Water’ has a strong first weekend but falls short of expectations at the global box office

The moment of truth has arrived for ‘Avatar’. The biggest premiere of the season, and arguably the year, has the industry, The Walt Disney Company, and James Cameron on their toes. ‘Avatar: The Sense of Water’ must prove that it has the ability to attract viewers to the big screen as it did the first one in 2009, that there is interest in a story that intends to have three more installments, and that all of them They can cost huge amounts of money.

The first ‘Avatar’ made $77 million in its first weekend in the US. That figure was very easy to surpass. In the end we are talking about a sequel and a huge amount of theaters (4,202, although it does not break the record of “Avengers: Endgame”). The forecast after the good reviews the film had received was between $150 million and $175 million, but Saturday’s data lowered Disney’s forecast to about $134 million. And that was finally the tentative weekend box office in the US.

It is, undoubtedly, a large number, but it is the fourth best opening of the year, behind ‘Doctor Strange in the multiverse of madness’, ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’, ‘Jurassic World: Dominion’ and ‘Thor :Love and thunder’. Perhaps a little disappointing for the big return to Pandora thirteen years later. 62% of “Avatar 2” ticket sales came from 3D theaters and IMAX screens. Good news: between Friday and Saturday it fell by only 16%. It has good word of mouth (it received an A in Cinemascore’s exit polls), and this will be key to seeing how alive the phenomenon is.

In the international field (very important for how well the first one worked outside the United States), many eyes are focused on China, one of the strongest markets for the first tranche (254 million dollars). ‘The sense of water’ raised around $57 million in its first weekend. The predictions were not huge due to a large outbreak of COVID-19 which is once again putting the country in check and forcing many cinemas to close or limit capacity. Cameron’s film grossed $301 million in international markets. After China, the most powerful territories were South Korea ($24.7 million) and Germany ($19.9 million).

Better before the pandemic in Spain

In Spain it would have fetched around 7.35 million euros, making it by far the best first of the year., exceeding 5.6 million for ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’. More: it would be the best post-coronavirus premiere, exceeding 7.29 million euros for ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’. Its debut would be slightly higher than that of the first “Avatar”. According to comscoreSpanish cinemas achieved the best Saturday of the year with 500,000 admissions.

The worldwide total of ‘Avatar: The Water’s Way’ is $435 million, making it already the 10th highest-grossing film of the year.. In five days. Still, pundits have come to give it a debut of around $500 million, and we’re talking one of the most expensive films in history (it’s budgeted at around $350 million), so it still has a long way to go. up to profit. And it plays at a disadvantage compared to the first ‘Avatar’ because it won’t be released in Russia, the second most profitable international market for the 2009 film, and audience habits are not the same after the pandemic.

‘Avatar: The Sense of Water’ has always been a long-distance race, not a beastly opening like the Marvel films followed by a precipitous drop over the following weeks. The key to the former’s success was that it stayed on the bill for months in good health and ended up adding the $2.8 billion that made it the highest-grossing film in history (without adjusting for inflation). of ticket prices). The sequel faces the challenge of not only taking advantage of Christmas, but also of continuing to sell tickets week after week beyond the holidays. Only then can we check the health of the franchise and event films like this. Now, barring any surprises, it won’t have a competition of its size until ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’ hits theaters on February 17th. We’ll see if by then the Na’vi will continue to wage war in the rooms.