James Cameron’s Avatar franchise has managed to hold three seemingly unbreakable box office milestone records, and the series is almost guaranteed to make more. The Avatar movies have been a box office phenomenon, with Avatar and Avatar: The Way of Water both being massive commercial hits that have smashed all kinds of records. James Cameron still has plans for several more Avatar sequels, meaning that the series is far from over. Because of this, the records that Avatar currently holds are far from the only ones that the franchise could have by the end of its life.
2009’s Avatar is famously the highest-grossing movie of all time, with James Cameron’s sci-fi epic famously being a massive hit with audiences and critics alike. Since it took 13 years for a sequel to come out, many fans of the franchise were surprised to see that Avatar: The Way of Water was almost as big of a success as its predecessor, with it currently being the third highest-grossing movie of all time. Both movies have made over $2 billion, and with more Avatar films on the way, the franchise’s box office legacy is far from over.
Avatar Is The Fastest Franchise To Make $3 Billion, $4 Billion & $5 Billion At The Box Office
It Did It With Only Two Movies
Avatar : The Way of Water helped Avatar to secure three major box office records, with it being the fastest film franchise to reach the $3 billion, $4 billion, and $5 billion markers at the box office. Avatar managed to reach each of these milestones with only two films, something that no other franchise has managed to do so far. 2009’s Avatar made $2.923 billion at the box office and 2022’s Avatar: The Way of Water made $2.32 billion at the box office, with the combined total gross of both movies putting it over the $5 billion mark.
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Fifteen different movie series have managed to make over $5 billion, but Avatar is the only one to have reached this goal with only two movies. After all, this milestone would only be possible if at least one of the two movies in another series made over $2.5 billion, and the only non-Avatar film to do this was Avengers: Endgame, which was the 22nd movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. No other series has come close to beating these box office records, and it is likely that Avatar will soon perform more impossible-to-beat feats.
Avatar 3, 4 & 5 Will Help The Franchise Keep Setting Box Office Records
It Could Cross Even More Milestones
Avatar: The Way of Water managed to be a box office success comparable to the first movie over a decade after the release of the first Avatar, showing that the franchise has legs that could continue to help it at the box office in the future. Avatar 3, Avatar 4, and Avatar 5 have all been confirmed, and with much shorter wait times between sequels, it is likely that these films will continue the franchise’s box-office successes. Even if they don’t make over $2 billion, these sequels could help further cement some incredible records.
The next three Avatar movies could help the franchise become the quickest movie series to reach other markers, such as $6 billion, $7 billion, $8 billion, or beyond. If each Avatar movie continues to make over $2 billion as the previous ones did, the franchise will have reached at a minimum $10 billion by the end of the series. While this seems unlikely, it also seemed unlikely that Avatar: The Way of Water would do so well, with the upcoming Avatar: Fire and Ash being a true testament to how the series will continue.
Will Any Other Franchises Ever Tie Avatar’s $3 Billion Box Office Record?
There Are Two Big Contenders
It will be incredibly difficult for another movie franchise to ever tie Avatar‘s box office record of getting $3 billion with only two movies, but there is a possibility it could happen. 2023 introduced two possible contenders, the first of which is The Super Mario Bros. Movie. The Super Mario Bros. Movie made $1.36 billion at the box office, meaning that a sequel would just have to make $1.64 billion to tie Avatar.
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Barbie is another candidate. Barbie made $1.446 billion during its run, meaning that Barbie 2 would just have to make $1.554 in order to reach the coveted $3 billion mark. It is always possible that a future franchise could appear that manages to surpass Avatar‘s record, but based on how things look right now, Avatar‘s record seems to be pretty solid.
Avatar
Avatar is a sci-fi action/adventure film created by James Cameron and released in 2009. Set in the fictional world of Pandora in the distant future, humans seek a rare mineral found on the planet but find a race of highly-intelligent beings directly in their mining path. To attempt to communicate and work with them, scientists create body replicas called “avatars,” and one man will change the destiny of both races using an avatar of his own.
- Release Date
- December 18, 2009
- Runtime
- 162 minutes
- Budget
- $237 Million
- Studio(s)
- 20th Century Fox , Lightstorm Entertainment , Dune Entertainment , Ingenious Film Partners
- Distributor(s)
- 20th Century Fox
