The cinematic re-release of James Cameron’s Avatar has seen big box office success, 13 years after its original debut. Set in 2154, in the fictional world of Pandora, a moon outside of Earth’s solar system, Avatar follows paraplegic Marine Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) as he bonds with the native population, the Na’vi, while on a spy mission to infiltrate their tribe and mine the planet's vaulable resources. Falling in love with the tribe’s princess, Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña), Jake realizes he must fight for the Na’vi’s right to survive.
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Avatar has held the title of the highest-grossing movie of all time since its debut over ten years ago. It briefly lost to 2019's Avengers: Endgame, but thanks to its 2021 re-release in China, Avatar reached the top again. The film has kicked off plans for a franchise with Cameron at the helm. Avatar marks the second time the director has achieved this historical box office feat, the first being with his drama epic Titanic. As a result, all eyes are on this December's Avatar: The Way of Water to see how it will perform. To hype up its debut, Disney has re-released the first Avatar in a remastered form.
As reported by 20th Century Studios, Avatar has earned an additional $10 million domestically with Disney’s re-release of the film, which places it third on the box office charts this weekend. This result comes from a mainly IMAX distribution in just 1,860 locations. In international news, Avatar topped the global charts, earning $20.5 million from 50 territories. This brings Avatar's total earnings worldwide this weekend to $30.5 million.
Avatar Re-Release's Success is Good News for Avatar 2
With such positive results, particularly since this re-release debuted on an arbitrary weekend in September, it can only mean good things for Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water. With such a large gap between installments, there has been some doubt over whether the second Avatar film can achieve the same level of box office success as its predecessor. However, it is clear that Cameron's immersive world and impressive visuals still hold sway, particularly on the big screen. Avatar: The Way of Water has been 10 years in the making, but viewers have been able to get a sneak peek of what’s to come, as the remastered Avatar includes a post-credit scene from the upcoming sci-fi epic. With only one trailer released publicly so far, that tease at the end of the re-release has likely gone a long way in further piquing audience interest.
Surprisingly, after 13 years, audiences will still pay to see Pandora even after Avatar has been available on streaming, showing that Cameron is clearly doing something right by bringing back these beloved characters and upping the ante with his VFX work. The appeal of seeing Avatar on the big screen is definitely a selling point and suggests there will be a sizable crowd coming out in December to catch The Way of Water on the biggest screen possible. The constant outpouring of love for what is to become a saga of Avatar sequels must be a huge confidence boost for the creative team behind the franchise.