‘Titanic’ 25th Anniversary Re-Release Trailer: James Cameron’s Oscar-Winning Epic Returns To Cinemas In February

Well, James Cameron naysayers, it’s time to admit defeat. Variety reports that “Avatar: The Way Of Water” now sits at #5 in the all-time box office gross rankings with $2.054 billion globally.

With Wednesday’s worldwide box office grosses included, James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water has surpassed $2.054B globally, and jumped up a notch on the all-time worldwide chart. 

In the wake of the breathtaking Avatar: The Way of Water soaring past the $2 billion global gross mark, the James Cameron-directed epic scored a best picture nomination, along with noms for production design, sound and visual effects. The snub of Cameron’s monumental achievement in the best director category continues the franchise’s complex relationship with Oscar.

Avatar: The Way of Water is still smashing it at the box office nearing $2B worldwide and director James Cameron is already teasing the next installment in the film series.

Titanic opposite Leonardo DiCaprio's boyishly charming Jack Dawson. The historical blockbuster cleaned house during the 1998 award season, winning Golden Globes, Academy Awards, and Grammys—though neither Winslet nor DiCaprio won any acting awards, despite nominations.

After last night’s Golden Globe thing, we had only less than 12 hours to regroup and prepare for the real deal: First SAG nominations, and then DGA, the initial two major guild indicators of where the real sentiment may lie before Oscar voting begins tomorrow. With Producers Guild, often a very Oscar-predictive list as well, still to come also tomorrow the best barometers of where industry thinking is at the moment will be on the table.

“Avatar: The Way of Water” has only been out in theaters less than a full month, and the film has already earned well over $1.73 billion worldwide. It’s an astonishing number and a total that will likely well exceed $2 billion in just a matter of a couple of weeks.

As soon as James Cameron and 20th Century Fox announced four more “Avatar” films following the juggernaut success of the original movie, naysayers immediately doubted audiences’ appetite for more. But as usual, Cameron has proved the skeptics wrong.

James Cameron believes Avatar: The Way of Water will break even, and is confident Disney will proceed with the sequels.

As we detailed extensively in our Biggest Entertainment Stories Of 2022 & What’s Next feature from late last year, while riding high for years and seemingly the future of the film and television industry, the bubble burst on streaming last year. The shortest version of that story? Netflix stock tumbled in early 2022, and then in April, the streamer announced it had lost subscribers for the first time in more than a decade, its stock plunged heavily, and the company quickly scrambled to go to an ad-model-tier subscription model.

As “Avatar: The Way Of Water” continues to rake at the global box office, it’s a good chance that James Cameron completes his vision and makes “Avatar” movies through 2028. But if he could work on something else, what would be it? According to the latest episode of Kim Master‘s “The Business” podcast, Cameron would love to return to the world of “Alita: Battle Angel,” and possibly do so on streaming.

As “Avatar: The Way Of Water” continues to soar at the box office, the adage “don’t bet against James Cameron” proves correct. The first sequel to Cameron’s 2009 smash hit likely crosses the $1.5 billion gross barrier today.