Avatar: The Way of Water is setting box offices around the world, and it set one in the Czech Republic over the weekend. James Cameron‘s sequel has become just the 12th film in the history of the Czech Republic to sell one million tickets, and it needed just one month to do so — the fastest of any movie in the country’s 30-year history.
The movie is also poised to become the highest-grossing movie ever at the Czech box office, perhaps as soon as the end of this month. Avatar: The Way of Water has now grossed a total of about 219 million crowns ($9.9 million), less than 50 million crowns short of the all-time Czech box office king Bohemian Rhapsody, which took in a total of 266 million crowns ($12 million) four years ago.
Avatar: The Way of Water is currently second all-time at the Czech box office, and just one of three films to have grossed more than 200 million crowns in the Czech Republic. The first Avatar took in 211 million crowns, while the 2019 Czech comedy Women on the Run (Ženy v běhu) scored big with 209 million crowns.
High ticket prices, a result of inflation as well as premium formats including IMAX and 4DX, are partially the cause of Avatar: The Way of Water‘s box office success. But the number of people that have seen the film in cinemas, which represents just under ten percent of the Czech Republic’s population, is also likely to set records in the coming months.
With 1,082,695 admissions through this past weekend, Avatar: The Way of Water should pass the first film’s tally of 1,358,262 admission over the coming weeks. It may have trouble catching up to Bohemian Rhapsody’s all-time Czech record of 1,831,714 admissions.
Last week, Avatar: The Way of Water co-creators James Cameron and Jon Landau celebrated the success of their film, the highest-grossing 2022 release worldwide and seventh highest-grossing film of all-time (so far) at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, where they added their handprints into the concrete in front of the cinema.
Avatar: The Way of Water has been nominated for six Critic’s Choice Awards, including Best Picture and Director, two Golden Globes, and selected by both the American Film Institute and National Board of Review as one of the best American films of 2022. It’s likely to enter into further awards competition when the Oscar nominations are announced next Tuesday, January 24.
Czech box office all-time top ten:
| Rank | Film Title | Gross (in millions of crowns) |
| 1 | Bohemian Rhapsody | 266.2 |
| 2 | Avatar: The Way of Water | 218.6 |
| 3 | Avatar | 213.1 |
| 4 | Women on the Run (Ženy v běhu) | 211.9 |
| 5 | Avengers: Endgame | 157.3 |
| 6 | Top Gun: Maverick | 147.4 |
| 7 | Angel of the Lord 2 (Anděl Páně 2) | 146.7 |
| 8 | Frozen II | 129.3 |
| 9 | Empties (Vratné lahve) | 124.6 |
| 10 | Women in Temptation (Ženy v pokušení) | 124.1 |
