• by Wayne Friedman , December 18, 2022

20th Century Studio’s “Avatar: The Way of Water” took in a sizable -- but not record-breaking -- $134 million in domestic U.S. and Canada movie-theater box-office revenues in its debut weekend.

Some 13 years after its initial franchise release, this version of the movie lands it in sixth place among the best domestic openings in 2022 -- with “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness”  the top opening-weekend earner at $187.4 million.

Total worldwide movie box-office results posted a better ranking: This “Avatar” was the third-highest opening globally (at $435 million) in the pandemic era (from 2020 to the present), according to Comscore. International business totaled $301 million.

The original “Avatar” movie -- released in 2009 -- holds the record for best all-time lifetime global movie theater box-office release, at $2.92 billion -- including $785.2 million from the U.S. and Canada and $2.14 billion internationally, according to IMdb's Box Office Mojo.

Walt Disney's 20th Century Studios' release spent an estimated $24.9 million in national TV advertising -- with 3,657 airings of commercials (starting up in earnest on November 21) and yielding 851.5 million impressions, according to iSpot.tv estimates.

By comparison, the biggest national TV ad spend this year for a movie's opening weekend so far was Universal Pictures' “Jurassic World Dominion” at $41.4 million, with 1.52 billion impressions.

The “Jurassic” release included expensive Super Bowl advertising on February 13 -- estimated at $6.5 million per TV commercial airing. The studio spent $20.7 million that day, according to iSpot.tv estimates.