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Two Disney Franchises Clash After Shocking Upset

We already knew that there was going to be a lot of hype and anticipation around the Avatar sequel, since it was over a decade in the making, since James Cameron has put an endless amount of detail into the world of Pandora and the Na’vi, and since A-list celebrity actors like Kate Winslet joined the cast.

Now that the movie has made it to theaters (and the actress who plays Neytiri has just broken a serious record), there is at least one more surprise that Avatar: The Way of Water has up its blue CGI sleeve!

zoe-saldana-pirates
Zoe Saldana has just made history after starring in not one, but four movies that have made over $2 billion!

The Avatar franchise — even though it only has two released movies, while the next three Avatar films linger on the sidelines — has now beat Star Wars in terms of box office takings and popularity!

Avatar: The Way of Water might not be getting quite as warm a reception as the team behind the film had hoped, but the movie has been doing well enough at the box office (especially after last weekend) to actually surpass the success of one of the most recognizable movie series of all time.

avatar the way of water scene
Credit: D23/Twitter

Avatar: The Way of Water has grossed $2.075 billion, which doesn’t just mean that it has surpassed movies like Star Wars: Episode VII — The Force Awakens (2015).

It also makes the movie the fourth highest-grossing movie in the history of film (with the three higher-grossing films being Titanic (1997), Avengers: Endgame (2019), and the original Avatar from 2009)!

Even though this in and of itself is big news, the fact that the Avatar sequel has trounced Star Wars movies in terms of success is a fact that will rankle many Jedi fans. 

star wars rey and chewbacca at disneyland
Star Wars characters Rey and Chewbacca at Disneyland Resort/Disney

We have seen a staggering number of failures coming from the Star Wars franchise as a whole, however — whether it has been in the form of the very expensive new Star Wars hotel in Walt Disney World Resort (shown below) or the lukewarm reactions to the Star Wars series (such as The Mandalorian or Obi-Wan Kenobi) that have had lackluster premieres on Disney+.

Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser

Star Wars movies have certainly had their heyday and been massively successful for the past few decades, and there are certainly still some diehard fans of the “galaxy far, far away” that permeates the franchise — but the sweeping success of Avatar has made it clear that, for many audience members, Star Wars is old news!

Do you think that Disney should stop prioritizing Star Wars projects and shift its focus to Avatar, now that we finally know more about the next three films (and now that one of Disney’s biggest stars has just made history after starring in the movies)?

Sharon

Sharon is a writer and animal lover from New England. Sharon's two main focuses in her work are Disney's correlations with pop culture and the significance of Disney princesses (which was the basis for her college thesis). When she's not writing about Disney, Sharon spends her time singing, dancing, and cavorting with woodland creatures!

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