MOVIE NEWS – Avatar: The Way of Water seems to have opened well, at least at the box office, but there are still questions about the film’s success and the potential afterlife.

Avatar: The Way of Water continues to be a box office success, with $497.1 million worldwide through Monday, December 19. On Tuesday, it probably crossed the $500 million mark. More than $150 million of that was in the United States; the rest was international.

The Way of Water opened with $134 million in North America, below some estimates, but it’s clear the film is still putting up big numbers.

Expectations are that it will remain strong during the holiday season as people are off work and out of school, although concerns about the pandemic could still affect box office figures.

In any case, Avatar 2 has helped Disney to cross the $4 billion mark in worldwide grosses by 2022, according to The Hollywood Reporter. That’s the most any Hollywood studio has achieved in 2022.

Director’s cut…? No way!

Producer Jon Landau recently spoke to Polygon about Avatar: The Way of Water and a possible director’s cut. Earlier, Cameron raised some exciting ideas in a Variety feature. He talked about a 6-hour streaming-specific version of the film and then a regular theatrical release of the same movie. Landau tried to explain the situation and why it doesn’t compare to an Avatar sequel.

“I think Jim is seizing on opportunities for other stories with two different cuts–the idea would be that you build a larger, epic narrative that can last 6 hours, and you pull a 2-and-a-half-hour movie out of it,” Landau said. As for an extended version of The Way of Water or even Avatar 3, Landau said, “We don’t have the amount of content to do that.”

Avatar: The Way of Water has a lot of special effects. So making an extended version of the film is not as simple as reinserting the cut scenes.

Weta FX, described by Cameron as the best visual effects company, would have to work on these scenes to make them fit seamlessly into the film.

Edie Falco knew Avatar 2 was a flop a long time ago

While audiences have been waiting a long time for Avatar: The Way of Water, star Edie Falco (Sopranos, Nurse Jackie) recently said she thought it came out years ago and failed. On The View, Falco revealed that she shot her scenes for the film more than four years ago.

“The second Avatar I shot four years ago,” Falco said. “I’ve been busy and doing stuff. Somebody mentioned Avatar and I thought, ‘Oh, I guess it came out and it didn’t do very well because I didn’t hear anything about it.’ It happens!”

Falco added that he saw the first one right when it came out but is “excited” for Avatar 2.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter, Polygon, YouTube