Avatar: The Way of Water’s box office collection is close to hitting the $1 billion (about Rs. 8,285 crore) mark. As of late Tuesday, James Cameron’s much-delayed sequel has raked in an outstanding $955 million (about Rs. 7,909 crore) at the global box office, climbing to the third position among 2022’s highest-grossing movies — tied with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which made $955.7 million (about Rs. 7,903 crore) worldwide during its theatrical run. Avatar 2’s split sees roughly $661.9 million (about Rs. 5,481 crore) collected from markets outside the US, with China being the top performer despite the surge of COVID-19 cases in the region. Within the US and Canada, the new Avatar film has pulled $293.2 million (about Rs. 2,428 crore).

Through Tuesday, India is among the top five non-American markets for Avatar: The Way of Water, placed fifth with a $39.2 million (about Rs. 324 crore) contribution to the global total. As stated above, China leads the non-US pack, collecting $104.5 million (about Rs. 866 crore) in ticket sales, serving as a massive boost, given the region notoriously barred several Hollywood releases in the region. Beyond that, the back-and-forth competition between France and Korea continues, with the former projecting $60.5 million (about Rs. 501 crore), while the latter has pulled $55.4 million (about Rs. 459 crore). Germany sits fourth ahead of India, pouring in $41.5 million (about Rs. 344 crore).

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In just two weeks since its release, Avatar: The Way of Water passed the box office tallies for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Minions: The Rise of Gru. The reported $400 million (about Rs. 3,314 crore) budgeted project will soon hit $1 billion, competing with the only two movies that have managed the feat this year.

Tom Cruise-led Top Gun: Maverick grossed $1.4 billion (about Rs. 11,598) at the global box office, while the Chris Pratt-led Jurassic World Dominion is at $1.003 billion (about Rs. 8,309 crore) despite negative reviews.

Avatar 2 still has a long way to go in order to break even though, with Cameron estimating that the film needs to be the “third or fourth highest-grossing film in history.” That would be roughly $2 billion (about Rs. 16,568 crore) in global box office revenue — currently held by his own disaster romance film Titanic, and Star Wars: The Force Awakens. These figures are not adjusted for inflation.

With these numbers, Avatar: The Way of Water is proving to be a successful draw for Disney and 20th Century Studios — coupled with the fact that there’s barely any major Hollywood competition until Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania releases in February.

A previous report suggested that the film, in fact, outperformed expectations during the Christmas weekend in the US and Canada — grossing $29.5 million (about Rs. 244 crore) instead of the anticipated $21.5 million (about Rs. 178 crore) — despite the harsh winter weather conditions in the region.

Avatar: The Way of Water is now playing in theatres globally. In India, Avatar 2 is available in English, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil, and Telugu.