Avatar 2 Is One Of Disney’s Biggest 2023 Box Office Hits — Despite Being Released In 2022

This runs in stark contrast to the Disney of just a handful of years ago, particularly pre-pandemic. Let us never forget that this is the studio that had seven (count ’em, seven!) movies that made at least $1 billion worldwide in 2019. In 2023, not a single movie released by the studio is going to reach that benchmark, despite the fact that Disney released seven movies — “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” ($250 million), “The Little Mermaid” ($250 million), “Quantumania” ($200 million), “Dial of Destiny” ($295 million), “Elemental” ($200 million), “Wish” ($200 million), and “The Marvels” ($250 million) — that cost $200 million or more to produce, as well as “Haunted Mansion,” which cost $150 million and topped out at just $117 million worldwide.

Even 2022 was far kinder to the Mouse House with movies like “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” ($436 million domestic/$859 million worldwide), “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” ($411 million domestic/$955 million worldwide), and “Thor: Love and Thunder” ($343 million domestic/$761 million worldwide) doing big numbers. But the studio also suffered giant flops like “Lightyear” and “Strange World,” making it an uneven year at best. The pandemic era has not been kind to Disney, to say the least of it.

Meanwhile, Cameron is set to be a cash cow for the studio for years to come, as “Avatar 3” is due to hit theaters in December 2025, with “Avatar 4” and “Avatar 5” scheduled to follow in 2029 and 2031, respectively. That is, assuming all five entries in the planned saga go the distance. What’s truly striking is that this franchise was inherited in Disney’s acquisition of Fox and wasn’t something homegrown. As the numbers illustrate, this was a much-needed win for the studio, no matter how it came about.