Avatar: The Way Of Water Was Defeated At The Japanese Box Office By A Basketball Anime
"Avatar: The Way of Water" is, by most measures, a hit. The film is getting better reviews than its predecessor, it actually improves upon the first one's flaws, and it's making a ton of money at the box office. Sure, it's not doing better than the smash-hit that was the first "Avatar" movie (which is still the highest-grossing movie of all time) but it is performing very well, especially overseas.
The world is feeling the way of water everywhere, in fact, except for one territory: Japan. According to Variety, "The Way of Water" ran on 1,466 screens there, the widest release ever for a film in that country. Despite this, James Cameron's highly anticipated sequel was unable to become the king of the world at the Japanese box office during its opening weekend. Instead, it came in second place with an estimated $3.9 million during its three-day opening. That performance gets even worse when you consider that the Japanese box office ranks films not by gross revenues, but by number of ticket sales. And with 259,000 admissions, that places the new "Avatar" movie even lower, taking third place.
What's curious is that the first film did rather well in Japan, with the country providing $170 million of the film's total $2.92 billion, which is not insignificant.
So who or what is the culprit? Well, according to the charts — anime. More specifically, a little film titled "The First Slam Dunk" — the first CGI-animated movie based on the "Slam Dunk" sports manga by Takehiko Inoue. And if you know anything about "Slam Dunk," this news isn't that surprising.
The power of anime
"Slam Dunk" tells the story of a high school basketball team, focusing on Hanamichi Sakuragi, a delinquent and former gang leader who joins the team to impress a girl but finds he is naturally gifted at the sport and falls in love with it.
The franchise, including the 1993 anime, became a cultural phenomenon in Japan and is often cited as the cause for basketball becoming popular among Japanese teens in the 1990s as well as bringing sneaker culture (especially Air Jordans) and hip-hop into the country in a bigger way. It's easy to see why — the anime (and manga) take a grounded approach to sports, focusing on team dynamics and character drama over flashy moves and special abilities. Like "Haikyu," it makes you fall in love with the sport as you fall in love with the characters.
Four "Slam Dunk" movies were made between 1994 and 1995 to promote both the anime and manga, but there were no new films since then until "The First Slam Dunk" was released on December 3. While it is surprising that "Avatar: The Way of Water" couldn't top the box office against a film in its third week of release, this is a hugely popular franchise filled with more nostalgia for the Japanese than James Cameron's latest blockbuster.
It's also interesting to note that Variety reported projection woes at Japanese cinemas screening "The Way of Water," particularly around the High Frame Rate format, which certainly didn't help the film and could cause bigger issues in the future for other "Avatar" installments.