“Avatar: The Way of Water” began to be released around the world this Wednesday. As of this Thursday, the film’s global box office grossed 15.8 million U.S. dollars (the top two were South Korea’s 3.3 million and France’s 2.9 million).
The film will be released in major markets such as mainland China and North America this Friday. The first week in North America is expected to be US$150 million to US$175 million, and the global box office is expected to be US$450 million to US$550 million in the first week.
However, the film also faces many challenges in order to return costs and make profits, including a production cost of up to 350-400 million US dollars.
Now critical reception has been generally positive so far in the review roundup for Avatar: The Way of Water. GameSpot sister site Metacritic has the film with a 71 score (based on 45 critic reviews), while Rotten Tomatoes shows an 84% rating (based on 122 reviews). Though, that said, GameSpot’s Avatar: The Way of Water review marks the movie as mediocre, noting, “The problem is that Jake Sully is about as engaging and likable as a piece of driftwood.”
