Good returns for Avatar: The Way of the Water keep flowing. In the sixth week of its theatrical run, the Disney/20th Century movie has sailed past Avengers: Infinity War to become the fifth highest-grossing movie of all time with a global box office tally of $2.054 billion. The film starred Sam Worthington, Zoë Saldaña, and Sigourney Weaver and was nominated for four Oscars, including Best Picture.

Director James Cameron can now relax as the public emphatically reaffirms their love for the Na’vi people. Avatar 2 now only stands behind Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens, Titanic, Avengers: Endgame, and, of course, its predecessor, Avatar, in the all-time box office category. This also puts three Cameron films in the top five, cementing his status as the King Midas of Hollywood.

Stateside, the film has grossed $603 million, putting it 13th on the all-time domestic list. The film’s international returns have been more impressive: a whopping $1.5 billion. It is only the sixth film to surpass the $2B worldwide. It is also the highest-grossing movie in the pandemic era, topping Spider-Man: No Way Home’s impressive $1.916B return in 2021.

Topping Endgame and sliding into the top five is not just a symbolic victory for Disney but also a necessary one. Making the film was so expensive that Cameron told Disney and 20th Century executives that Avatar 2 needed “to be the third or fourth highest-grossing film in history. That’s your threshold. That’s your break even.” Cameron likely used hyperbole, as more conservative estimates put the movie’s profitability point at a more modest $1.4 billion.

While we are still waiting for official numbers, it is clear that the movie cost a lot to make. The budget alone for the film was estimated to be between $350-450 million, with delays likely inflating that total. A worldwide marketing campaign pushed the overall costs to more than $600 million.

It has not been entirely smooth sailing for the sci-fi epic. Shortly after the film was released in mid-December last year, the U.S. was hit with devastating snowstorms, keeping many people at home. Their largest international market, China, closed many theaters after coronavirus cases surged in the country. Furthermore, the film is not even showing in another essential market: Russia. Still, the movie demonstrated it has tremendous staying power.

The sequel also raised enough cash for the studios to move ahead with further installments. Cameron has teased at ending the franchise at three films if the sequel underperformed. Of course, that has not happened, and as of now, three more movies are in the works.

Filming for the next two installments is well underway. Producer Jon Landau said that Avatar 3 is already 95 percent done and expected to be released on December 20h, 2024. Landau also claimed the first act of the fourth film had been shot, and the cast sat down for a table reading the fifth movie.