'Avatar: The Way of Water' Overcomes Bad Winter Weather, Nearing $1 Billion

It looks like initial box office estimates for the second weekend of "Avatar: The Way of Water" were somewhat low for the holiday weekend, which was filled with winter storms that kept many moviegoers at home. Despite extreme weather conditions and the Christmas holiday, the James Cameron sequel drew a better-than-expected $64 million for its second weekend, per Variety.

Now, it's only a matter of time before the film reaches $1 billion even faster than the original and pushes its box office even further.

Initial box office projections had "The Way of Water" grossing $56 million over its second weekend. Over, updated projections now put its second weekend at $64 million for the three-day weekend and $90 million through Monday for the four-day weekend.

That would give the sci-fi sequel a dropoff of only 52% for its second weekend at the domestic box office, which is strong for this type of blockbuster. The film's domestic box office total is currently sitting at $287 million.

Comparatively, the first "Avatar" movie also had severe weather conditions when it was first released in December 2009. It eventually went on to gross about $749 million domestically and $2.74 billion worldwide.

Box Office Mojo currently has "The Way of Water's" worldwide total at $881 million, so the film should cross the $1 billion mark in a matter of days. The highest-grossing movie of the year thus far is "Top Gun: Maverick" at $1.488 billion. "Avatar: The Way of Water" should cross that mark eventually at this rate.  However, as noted by Variety, "The Way of Water" is already the fifth highest-grossing movie of 2022 after just 10 days of release.

Elsewhere, the new period Hollywood-themed drama, "Babylon," did not fare as well in its opening weekend after a December 23 release. The film had an abysmal opening weekend of just $3.6 million.

"Babylon" had a strong pedigree going into its release. It's the latest film from Oscar-winning director Damien Chazelle, starring two-time Oscar nominee Margot Robbie and Oscar-winner Brad Pitt. It had all the makings of a prestige, awards season drama. It already received five Golden Globe Award nominations, including nominations for Pitt, Robbie, and Diego Calva.

However, the film made a poor start at only $3.6 million for the three-day weekend and $5.3 million for the four days. The film cost a reported $80 million, plus tens of millions more for P&A. Critics were not enthusiastic about the film. It achieved a "Rotten" score on Rotten Tomatoes at only 56%. The audience score is currently at only 47% as well.

Not to mention, the film is well over three hours long, which can sometimes be a red flag for moviegoers. "Avatar: The Way of Water" is also a three-hour length, but it's not the same type of movie as "Babylon."

Another new movie release over the weekend was the new CG-animated family film, "Puss in Boots: The Last Wish," a sequel to the 2011 film and spinoff of the "Shrek" universe. The film grossed $12 million for the three-day weekend and about $20 million for its four-day take. Its current domestic total is at about $26.9 million due its early Wednesday release.

Variety notes that "The Last Wish" came in slightly ahead of its Sunday projections. It currently has about $57.2 million worldwide. "The Last Wish" will need some decent legs to become profitable, but it at least it has the winter break working in its favor. The film also looks to be very well received by critics with a 95% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and a current audience score of 93%.

While the opening weekend for "Avatar: The Way of Water" may have come in lower than expected, it appears the film continued to have strong daily weekday performances, along with a strong second weekend. The sequel likely breaks $1 billion in a matter of days, and it will be interesting to see how it performs over the New Year's weekend.

The new film comes from filmmaker James Cameron, with at least three more planned films in the "Avatar" saga that are currently in the works. However, the final box office performance of "The Way of Water" might ultimately determine what happens to "Avatar 4" and "Avatar 5."