It’s an interesting era for the Box Office indeed. While Top Gun: Maverick’s resurgence to Box Office prominence long after its release date was unusual enough, to see a 13-year-old movie make such a strong resurgence is an oddity indeed. Entertainment lawyer Los Angeles with Blake & Wang P.A, Brandon Blake, gives us his take on this strange circumstance.
No Need to Boost
Of course, Avatar already holds some prominence as one of the biggest movies of all time worldwide, even over a decade after release. And it isn’t being re-released in the remastered version for its own sake. It’s purely to drive hype for the long-awaited (and long-overdue) sequel, Avatar: The Way of Water. However, the enhanced visuals are striking, and no doubt the money is well received.
Even on the mid-week release it managed to open at No 1 in several global locations, and Indonesia and Taiwan added themselves to the list as of Friday. This pips Star Wars: Episode I’s re-release launch by 13%, and considerably (think 249%) outperformed the recent re-release of the far fresher Spider-Man: No Way Home. Unsurprisingly four fifths of this was driven by the 3D-enabled theater releases. Japan actually sees 100% of its revenue come from 3D.
To date, France leads with a 1.1M Box Office (through Friday), followed by $600k in Italy and Australia, and $400kk for Germany and Korea. Korea then upturned the apple cart further, seeing a 150% boost over Saturday to close out at $800k.
Overall, it is anticipated the weekend saw Box Office takings of around $25M for the remastered release.
Three Month Refresh
We will see the much-anticipated sequel hit the screens in about 3 months, with a rollout beginning on December 14th 2022. So this is definitely intended as one of the largest ‘pre-release trailers’ we’ve ever seen, with sneak-peek visuals from the new film built into the ending of the remaster.
In total, the re-release is playing on 8,000 screens internationally and domestically. Disney have gone overboard to get it a Chinese release, too, with their local parks offering special screenings and new technology to try lure viewers. They have also given Shanghai Disney a temporary installation, entitled ‘Explore Pandora’, to drink in. And it has been outfitted with all the bells and whistles of modern technology for a truly fascinating live experience. Obviously they want to have this market open for the sequel. And it was a massive market for the original Avatar, too, being a key component of it acquiring its coveted highest-grossing film of all time at the global box office status. Whether or not they will be successful in their bid in the changed release environment for this once-key overseas market, of course, remains to be seen.
All in all, it is a spectacular showing for a movie that has been old news for a decade, and clearly points to interesting things for the upcoming sequel release too. Will Avatar: The Way of Water, coupled with some other highly anticipated releases, give us a Festive Box Office as spectacular as the summer one? Let’s hope so.
