"Avatar" sequel provides much-needed boost to China's box office

A citizen buys film tickets at a cinema of a shopping mall in Beijing, capital of China, Dec. 25, 2022. (Xinhua/Ren Chao)

BEIJING, Dec. 27 (Xinhua) -- Despite mixed views since Dec. 16, the highly-anticipated "Avatar: The Way of Water" has provided a much-needed boost to China's box office market in the year-end moviegoing period lasting more than five weeks until Dec. 31. But the impetus is seemingly less than previously expected.

Garnering cumulative earnings of 742 million yuan (106.69 million U.S. dollars) as of early Tuesday afternoon, the sequel to the 2009 American sci-fi hit "Avatar" currently tops China's year-end box office chart that tracks ticket revenue from Nov. 25 through the end of the year 2022, accounting for around 60 percent of the total, according to box office tracker Maoyan and other platforms.

The American fantasy film has proven a spectacle of visual effects to many moviegoers, though its storyline is labeled by some as simple. Still, its release helped draw many people back to cinemas, with the nationwide cinema opening ratio soaring to above 80 percent on the debut day, showed data from Maoyan.

Maoyan currently forecasts "Avatar: The Way of Water" to complete its box office run in China with about 1.15 billion yuan, much lower than a previously-estimated 2 billion yuan.

The "Avatar" sequel now ranks ninth in China's 2022 box office chart covering all films screened this year, with the domestic patriotic hit "The Battle at Lake Changjin II" being the year's top earner with more than 4 billion yuan.

In China, "Avatar" was released in January 2010 and re-released in March 2021, generating a total box office revenue of 1.7 billion yuan.