Photo: 20th Century Studios; Everett

Avatar: The Way of Waterhas officially claimedTop Gun: Maverick’s top spot at the worldwide box office.

Director James Cameron’s sci-fi action film — a sequel to his 2009 original that became the highest-grossing movie of all time — has now passed $1.51 billion worldwide, making it the No. 1 movie released in 2022,according toThe Hollywood Reporter.Tom Cruise’sTop Gun: Maverick, a long-delayed sequel to his 1986 movie, previously held that spot with $1.489 billion.

Avatar: The Way of Wateris currently the 10th biggest movie of all time (not adjusted for inflation),THRreported, and it’s expected to continue to rise.

Of all the movies that hit theaters in 2022, the only other to make over $1 billion globally wasJurassic World Dominion.Avatar: The Way of Waterreached the billion-dollar mark in just 14 days.

Cameron, 68,recently toldGQthat the sequel was “very f—ing” expensive to make. He joked that he told the studio the film was “the worst business case in movie history,” and that it would “have to be the third- or fourth-highest-grossing film in history” to just “break even.”

James Cameron.Gabriel Olsen/Getty

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Avatar: The Way of WaterstarsSam Worthington,Zoe Saldaña,Sigourney Weaver,Kate Winslet, Stephen Lang and more. It earnedGolden GlobeandCritics Choice Award nominationsfor best picture. (Oscar nominations will be announced later in January.)

In December 2021, Cameron toldEntertainment Weeklythat, given the state of moviegoing amid the pandemic, he worried whether the sequel would be able to matchAvatar’s success. (A third film has already completed filming with plans forfurther sequels in the works.)

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“The big issue is: Are we going to make any damn money? Big, expensive films have got to make a lot of money,” said Cameron at the time. “We’re in a new world post-COVID, post-streaming. Maybe those [box office] numbers will never be seen again. Who knows? It’s alla big roll of the dice.”

Avatar: The Way of Wateris now in theaters.Top Gun: Maverickis available to stream on Paramount+.

source: people.com