news culture Avatar 2: A big impact on French cinemas?
Undoubtedly one of the most anticipated movies of this year 2022, Avatar 2: The Way of Water was finally released on December 14th and broke all entry records. Something to reassure French cinemas that are struggling to attract viewers.
summary
- Avatar 2 saves box office
- Cinemas breathe but fear the worst
Avatar 2 saves box office
You couldn’t miss the news: the long-awaited sequel to Avatar, entitled The Way of Water, hit all French cinemas last week. According to CBO Box Office data, James Cameron’s film currently surpasses its predecessor’s score in terms of number of tickets sold in a week, having reached 2.7 million viewers in France, up from just over 2.6 million in 2009.
When you reach this number, Avatar 2: The Way of Water earned a place in the top 20 product launches of the century, just behind Spider-Man No way home which had reached 2.77 million visitors in 7 days. Together they form the only two feature films to have managed to achieve this ranking since the Covid-19 crisis.
In addition to this data, it can also be noted that two-thirds of the viewers of Avatar 2: The Way of Water I’ve seen it in premium rooms, or at least rooms that allow for 3D HDR projection with the HFR option. As a reminder, the latter allows the film to be viewed at 48 frames per second instead of the traditional 24, thus benefiting from a more fluid image. All of this can impact cinema location, inflating revenue for the spaces that really needed it after a disastrous month of September.
Cinemas breathe but fear the worst
As we know, since the Covid-19 crisis, cinemas are struggling more than ever to attract viewers. Some blame the price of the ticket, others the wealth of content accessible from their sofa thanks to SVOD services, still others prefer to talk about the sometimes shocking behavior of certain viewers, whatever the reason, the observation is the same. .
French cinemas, for example, had to endure a particularly catastrophic month in September 2022, with a total of 7.38 million admissions, a sad record never reached outside of September 2020, right during the Covid. Fortunately, the number of admissions was greater in the following two months, thanks in particular to the release of Black Adam in October and Simone, le voyage du siècle in November. Given the record sales ofAvatar 2: The Way of Water
However, the latter are increasingly concerned that Disney, one of the most prolific producers of the moment, will decide simply to no longer release its films in cinemas in France. If such a decision would have catastrophic effects on the health of cinemas, it is far from unthinkable for Mickey’s company. In fact, we remember that they had already threatened not to go out Black Panther: Wakanda Forever than on their SVOD platform, a threat they ended up preferring to execute for their latest animated classic.
Dissatisfied with France’s media chronology law (which dictates that all of the company’s films must not be released on Disney+ until 17 months after their theatrical release date), Disney actually chose not to release Avalonia, the strange journey only today, December 23, 2022, on their SVOD platform. While they wait and see if they will hold this position longer, cinemas can only hope that Avatar 2 will attract even more viewers in January 2023.