News culture Avatar 2: a huge impact on French theaters?
It was undoubtedly one of the most anticipated films of this year 2022, Avatar 2: the way of the water was finally released on December 14 and exploded all entry records. Something to reassure French cinemas, which are struggling to attract spectators.
Summary
- Avatar 2 bails out cinema coffers
- Cinemas breathe, but fear the worst
Avatar 2 bails out cinema coffers
You couldn’t miss the news: the long-awaited sequel to Avatar, called “the way of the water”, was released last week in all French cinemas. According to CBO Box office data, James Cameron’s film is currently beating its predecessor’s score in terms of the number of seats sold in a week, as it reached 2.7 million viewers in France, against just over 2.6 million in 2009.
By reaching this number, Avatar 2: The Way of the Water earned a place among the top 20 launches of the century, barely behind Spider-Man No Way Home which had reached 2.77 million admissions in 7 days. Together, they form the only two feature films that have managed to reach this ranking since the Covid-19 crisis.
In addition to these data, it can also be noted that two thirds of viewers of Avatar 2: The Way of the Water have seen it in premium rooms, or at least in rooms allowing 3D HDR projection with the HFR option. As a reminder, the latter allows the film to be displayed in 48 frames per second instead of the traditional 24, and thus to benefit from a more fluid image. All this can have an impact on the place of the cinema and thus inflate the receipts of the rooms, which really needed it after a catastrophic 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 spectators. Some blame the price of the ticket, others the abundance of content accessible from their sofa thanks to SVOD services, still others prefer to talk about the sometimes shocking behavior of certain spectators, whatever the reason, the observation is the same. .
French cinemas, for example, had to suffer a particularly disastrous month of September 2022 with a total of 7.38 million admissions, a sad record that had never been reached outside of September 2020, right during the Covid . Fortunately, the number of admissions met with greater success in the following two months, in particular thanks to the release of Black Adam in October and Simone, le voyage du siècle in November. In view of the sales records ofAvatar 2: The Way of the Waterso there is no doubt that December should follow the momentum and keep French cinemas above water.
However, the latter fear more and more that Disney, one of the most prolific producers of the moment, decides to simply stop releasing their films in theaters in France. If such a decision would have catastrophic repercussions on the health of cinemas, it is far from unthinkable for Mickey’s company. Indeed, we remember that they had already threatened not to go out Black Panther : Wakanda Forever than on their SVOD platform, a threat that they finally preferred to carry out for their latest animation classic.
Unhappy with France’s media chronology law (which requires that all of the firm’s films can only arrive on Disney+ 17 months after their theatrical release), Disney has indeed chosen not to release Avalonia, the strange journey only on their SVOD platform today, December 23, 2022. While waiting to find out if they will maintain this position for longer, cinemas can only hope that Avatar 2 attracts even more spectators in January 2023.
