Avatar: The Way of Water set to become the biggest movie of all-time at the NZ box-office
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Loading... - Jeremy MOORE
- 20 Jan 2023
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Avatar: The Way of Water is set to become the biggest movie of all-time at the New Zealand box-office.
As of Thursday morning, James Cameron’s blockbuster sequel had grossed $16, 533, 399 since its release on December 15, just $834,066 behind the current record-holder – 2009’s Avatar.
On current audience trends, that means it’s likely to surpass its predecessor before the end of the month, if not within the next week.
It is still playing in more than 100 locations around the country and raking in twice the amount of money per screen than its nearest rivals Puss in Boots sequel The Last Wish and the New Zealand-shot horror M3gan.
Initially seen as something of a risk given its massive budget (believed to be somewhere between US$350m-460m) and the long gap since the original film’s release, the partly Kiwi-shot fantasy has once again proved how willing audiences are to embrace the Canadian-born, now Wairarapa-based Cameron’s immersive storytelling.
Not only has The Way of Water now become the sixth-biggest movie of all-time globally (having just surpassed Spider-Man: No Way Home, it’s about to cross the US$2 billion barrier), but it now means the 68-year-old film-maker has three titles in the Kiwi Top 10. 1997’s Titanic is currently 9th (with $13,002,587), but it could yet sneak up a notch next month when it returns to cinemas for special 25th anniversary screenings. It needs to just rake in a further $16,000 to nudge ahead of the eighth-placed Disney’s 2019 CGI remake of its 1994 animated classic The Lion King ($13,018,418). Read More…
