"Avatar 2" Passes "Avengers: Infinity War" as Fifth Highest-Grossing Movie

James Cameron’s "Avatar: The Way of Water", the sequel to the worldwide 2009 blockbuster "Avatar", is now the fifth highest-grossing movie of all time, passing “Avengers: Infinity War” to take its spot on Thursday.

The 20th Century Studios/Disney sci-fi epic has now grossed $2.054 billion at the global box office. “Infinity War” had an equally impressive $2.052 billion total, after releasing back in 2018.

Only “Avatar” ($2.92 billion), “Avengers: Endgame” ($2.79 billion), “Titanic” ($2.19 billion), and “Star Wars Episode VII – The Force Awakens” ($2.07 billion) rank higher on the all-time list. 

“Avatar: The Way of Water” has also earned more than “Spider-Man: No Way Home” ($1.92 billion), making it the highest-grossing movie of the pandemic era.

Internationally, The sequel has grossed $1.5 billion, making it the fourth-biggest movie in history. 

At the domestic box office, it’s made $603 million, standing as No. 13 of all time. It’s just the sixth movie ever made that has crossed $2 billion globally, doing so in its sixth week of release.

Notably, Thursday’s achievement now gives Cameron three of the top five highest-grossing movies of all time, but his movies also carry steep price tags. 

Avatar fans have been waiting thirteen years for its sequel, which premiered on December 16 and started ten years after the original.

Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldaña returned as Jake and Neytiri. They now live in Pandora with their family.

Sigourney Weaver, Cliff Curtis, Edie Falco, Michelle Yeoh, Jemaine Clement, Oona Chaplin, Vin Diesel, Stephen Lang, Matt Gerald, Joel David Moore, CCH Pounder, Dileep Rao, Giovanni Ribisi, and Kate Winslet also star in the movie.

Cameron, who has been working on the sequel since 2013, said previously that for the movie to be profitable, it will “have to be the third or fourth highest-grossing film in history. That’s your threshold. That’s your break even.”

The movie is the first of four “Avatar” sequels planned. An untitled third “Avatar” movie is set for release on December 20, 2024.

Filming has been completed on "Avatar 3", while production on a fourth and fifth film is underway.