‘Avatar’ has ‘Maverick’ in its sights as it crosses $1.44 billion at the box office

20th Century Studios — Paramount Pictures

It hasn’t even been in theaters for a month, but Avatar: The Way of Water already has 2022’s highest grossing film in its sights.

James Cameron‘s sequel to the highest-grossing film of all time splashed past the $1.44 billion mark worldwide after strong performances over the New Year’s holiday weekend. By comparison, Maverick, which was released in May 2022, has inched toward the $1.89 billion mark by this point.

In short, like its Na’vi characters’ are, The Way of Water‘s legs are long: The film that came out the week of December 16 ended up jumping to #2 of 2022’s Top 10 ranking worldwide before the year’s end, and its strong performance over the holiday reveals there are no signs of it stopping, particularly overseas. As some prognosticators predicted, the film could overtake Maverick in short order, earning in weeks what took the highest-grossing Tom Cruise movie months to generate.