Move over Top Gun: Maverick - Avatar: The Way of Water is the biggest film of 2022
Two films, two punctuation-heavy names, but only one winner.
![Move over Top Gun: Maverick - Avatar: The Way of Water is the biggest film of 2022](https://www.shortlist.com/media/imager/202301/58204-posts.article_md.jpg)
The battle to be crowned the highest grossing film of 2022 was always going to be competitive - but if initial figures are correct, James Cameron's blue CGI creations have come up trumps.
Yes, Avatar: The Way of Water is officially the highest grossing film of 2022, raking in a staggering $454 million USD domestically and over $1 billion USD internationally.
In what was a tightly fought contest, that saw everyone's favourite blue creatures battle it out against Tom Cruise and the jet-fuelled Top Gun: Maverick.
But it seems Cruise fell at the final hurdle.
According to figures released on Wednesday, January 4, 20th Century's golden child (or maybe blue) Avatar: The Way of Water raked in $1.51 billion USD globally in 2022.
It's a painful figure when you break things down, pipping Top Gun: Maverick to the post by a mere $20 million (the film clawed in a total of $1.49 billion USD at the global box office).
That's small change by film industry standards.
![Avatar: The Way of Water pips Top Gun: Maverick to become the highest grossing film of 2022](https://www.shortlist.com/media/images/2023/01/https-hypebeastcom-image-2023-01-avatar-the-way-of-water-top-grossing-movie-2022-passes-top-gun-maverick-1-1672954663-IJA7-column-width-inline.jpg)
What that staggering post-pandemic figure reveals is our thirst for film remains, with 2022s wave of films smashing all manner of records along the way.
Not only did Avatar: The Way of Water become the 10th top-grossing film of all time, but it also claimed the number two spot when it came to the top-grossing titles of the pandemic, beaten only by Spider-Man: No Way Home.
With the film requiring a production budget of over $400 million, it's no surprise that director James Cameron said in an interview it would need to gross $2 billion just to break even.
Despite his claims, it's now predicted Avatar 2 would in fact need closer to $1.4 billion USD - but hey, who's really counting?
- It's time to discover the best tv shows of 2022
Main Image Credit: Paramount / Disney
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