Box office haul for 'Avatar: The Way of Water' tops $2 billion

LOS ANGELES, Jan 22 (Reuters) - Pricey movie sequel

"Avatar: The Way of Water" topped $2 billion in global box

office receipts on Sunday, sealing its spot as another hit

franchise for the Walt Disney Co. Director James Cameron had said the movie needed to reach

the $2 billion mark just to break even. "The Way of Water"

debuted in late December, 13 years after the original "Avatar"

introduced the lush world of Pandora and became a worldwide

phenomenon. Box office sales for "The Way of Water" totaled $2.024

billion on Sunday, according to Disney estimates. After six

weekends in theaters, it ranks as the sixth-highest grossing

movie of all time. Roughly $1.4 billion of ticket sales have

come from international markets outside the United States and

Canada. "It's an unqualified success," said Paul Dergarabedian,

senior media analyst at Comscore. "Any time you are in the

billions you are in the pantheon of top franchises." Disney has not disclosed the movie's budget, but the

Hollywood Reporter said it cost at least $350 million to produce

plus marketing costs. Studios split ticket sales with theaters. The strong reception for the film also should help attract

crowds to a Pandora area at Walt Disney World in Florida,

analysts said, and spark merchandise sales for years to come. "Avatar" was touted as one of the jewels in Disney's $71

billion purchase of 21st Century Fox assets in 2019, a property

it could elevate alongside Marvel and Star Wars. Activist

investor Nelson Peltz, who is seeking a seat on the Disney

board, has argued that the company paid too much for Fox. A third "Avatar" movie, which Cameron has already filmed, is

scheduled to debut in December 2024. The fourth and fifth

installments are slated for December 2026 and December 2028. The original "Avatar" enchanted audiences with

groundbreaking visuals that told the story of Pandora's blue,

9-foot-tall Na'vi people. The 2009 movie remains the

highest-grossing film in history with $2.9 billion in global

ticket sales. In "The Way of Water," actors Sam Worthington and Zoe

Saldana return as Jake Sully and Neytiri 10 years later, now

parents of five children. When humans return to go after Jake,

the family takes refuge with an oceanic clan. Cameron has directed three of the top six films of all time

• the two "Avatar" movies and 1997 drama "Titanic." (Reporting by Lisa Richwine in Los Angeles

Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Matthew Lewis)