In modern Hollywood it has become exceedingly rare for more than one major studio release to open in theaters on any given Friday. Every studio wants their biggest movies to have the best chance of box office success, and that means opening them with as little competition as possible. Studios plan and announce releases years in advance in order to stakeout dates and most other studios will try to keep their distance, as opening their own movie on a date already spoken for means sharing their box office as well.
And yet, at the end of this year we are scheduled to see two major tentpoles go toe-to-toe, as both Avatar 2 and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom are set to open on December 16. The decision to do that could be bad news for both movies when it comes to box office, but things are looking more dire for Aquaman, as most fans seem to be much more interested in Avatar 2.
No. Avatar 2 gonna hit Aquaman so hard that he'll lose his kingdom. https://t.co/NcTSXqM2IRJanuary 19, 2022
If fans have to choose between seeing the new Avatar or the new Aquaman, most people seem to be much more interested in James Cameron’s long delayed sequel than the new adventure starring Jason Momoa. Both movies were pretty big hits in their original release, though certainly Avatar was bigger. In fact, it’s the highest grossing movie of all-time right now.
DEFINITELY Watching Avatar 2, I know James Cameron is about to Re-reinvent the cinematic viewing experience https://t.co/DDXlxfkeXuJanuary 19, 2022
If nothing else, the support that Avatar 2 is getting here seems to put to bed an idea that has been going around for years that movie fans just don’t care about the Avatar franchise. While the first movie is literally the most successful ever, in the decade that’s passed there has been a feeling from some that maybe the movie didn’t stick with people in the same way other big movies have.
AVATAR made nearly 3 billion dollars, was nominated for 9 Oscars, and was THE cultural obsession for a year. Not sure how/when film twitter collectively decided to forget all that and decide it sucked. It didn’t. AVATAR 2 will be great. I will keep screaming this till December.January 15, 2022
That of course doesn’t mean that Avatar 2 will necessarily come anywhere close to the box office of the first movie, but there is clearly an audience here that will likely go a long way to making Avatar 2 successful in its own right.
What makes me think everyone’s gonna eat crow on Avatar 2 is that I’ve seen this same situation before. As a kid I remember them making fun of James Cameron for YEARS because his Titanic movie was comedically delayed and over budget for “a movie we already know the ending to lol” https://t.co/36iaPmFfXaJanuary 19, 2022
It will be interesting to see if both these movies remain on December 16 or if one of them moves. Whichever movie ends up winning if they compete directly, it’s hard to believe they won’t both do better if they open on separate dates. Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom has had this date set for years while Avatar 2 moved to the date following one of its many release delays.
Avatar 2 but only to see the creature designs I was told that apparently some of the behind the scenes crew really liked my “Biology of Avatar” video and used it almost as a reference for their new creature designs 😳 https://t.co/pZl7f1HwBWJanuary 19, 2022
Who knows? We could see Avatar 2 get delayed yet again for production reasons, putting an end to the competition, or perhaps Aquaman 2 will decide it needs to give James Cameron’s franchise more space in order to be successful.
