‘Avatar: The Way Of Water’ Projected To Open To $150M-$175M+ At U.S. Box Office

deadline.com:

The long awaited James Cameron sequel to the highest grossing movie of all-time hit tracking this morning with a projected opening of at least $150M.

Tracking has it higher near $175M, but rivals are bullish at $200M. Here’s the thing — the pic is being comped against holiday fanboy titles, and the numbers that are being seen need to be taken with a grain of salt.

Avatar isn’t a front-loaded opening weekend fanboy movie, it’s one that will play and play. A $150M opening is 95% ahead of the original 2009 title’s $77M.

Everyone is going nuts over Avatar: The Way of Water forecasts because the unaided awareness (that indicator which measures those polled mentioning their want-to-see of the title without being prompted in a poll) is in the high 30s to 40s across all demos including Latino and Hispanic and Black.