While James Cameron was once being questioned by fans about whether or not Avatar: The Way of Water was a good idea, the filmmaker has since left all those doubts behind him. The sequel stars Sam Worthington as Jake Sully and Zoe Saldana as Neytiri in the lead and became a much bigger success than James Cameron himself had expected.
As Avatar: The Way of Water climbs up the ranks of the highest-grossing films at the box office, it continues to break records left and right. Sure, people weren’t sure about the sequel at first, but it now looks like fans have to give credit where credit is due. Speaking of records, actress Zoe Saldana has managed to pull something off which makes her stand out in the industry.
Zoe Saldana Makes a Rare Win at the Box Office
No one expected Avatar: The Way of Water to perform so well at the box office, not even James Cameron himself. After all, the sequel was coming almost fifteen years after Avatar (2009). However, the movie is continuing to flourish at the box office having made over $2 billion, and is only the sixth film ever to reach the two-billion club. Along with its steps onward and upwards, it has brought a huge win for one of its actors – Zoe Saldana.
With Avatar, Avengers: Endgame, and Avatar: The Way of Water, Saldana has now been a major part of the three highest-grossing films of all time. While she plays one of the lead roles in the Avatar franchise, her character in Avengers, Gamora isn’t the main character of the film. However, that does not mean that Saldana played a background character in the Endgame and its predecessor, Avengers: Infinity War. In fact, she played a pivotal part in Thanos’ quest and one would even say the superheroes lost their battle with Thanos in Infinity War thanks to Peter Quill’s love for Gamora. Here’s what Twitter has to say about the win.
The Queen of the box office pic.twitter.com/upBlsAAMic
— 𝙊𝙬𝙚𝙣 (@owen02_) February 11, 2023
— Gustavo Fring (@_aaronfer211) February 11, 2023
I don’t think nearly enough people are understanding how impressive that is
— Luke Gendics (@LukeGendics30) February 11, 2023
With the rest of the sequels for Avatar greenlit and they are all successful she literally gonna be highest grossing actress of all time.
— O.Akinfenwa (@o_akinfenwa) February 11, 2023
As she should. My woman 💚
— Margokih Loki Series ☀️🌒 (@Vairons_Split) February 11, 2023
With more and more sequels ready to be added to the Avatar: franchise, Saldana might be finding herself a few more permanent spots on the list of highest-grossing films. Excited to see what the future holds both for Neytiri and Saldana!
Are Major Franchises Exhausting Zoe Saldana?
Saldana has been a part of a lot of major franchises – Avatar, Marvel, and Star Trek. While we would love to see her be a part of big franchises going forward as well, it looks like she might be done with them, at least for now. Talking to Women’s Wear Daily, the actress talked about how these franchises are becoming “a lot” to handle.
“There was a time where it was so exciting to seem [like I was] and to know that I am one of the hardest working people…Now I’m embarrassed because this whole idea of productivity and overproducing yourself too much is just a lot.”
She continued that she feels like she has been “stuck” doing franchises lately, even though she is grateful for the opportunities. She loves playing roles that people, especially children, love, and she sure enjoys working with a talented team. However, she also feels that franchises are limiting her potential as an artist.
“I feel that for the last ten years of my life, I have been just stuck. I felt stuck doing these franchises…I’m very grateful for the opportunities they provided, from collaborating with amazing directors to meet cast members that I consider friends and getting to play a role that fans, especially children, love. But it also meant that I felt artistically stuck in my craft of not being able to expand or grow or challenge myself by playing different sorts of genres and different roles.”
Now that Saldana has made it pretty clear that she wants to expand her portfolio as much as she can, we don’t know how long she’ll continue with Avatar. She already doesn’t seem to be returning for more Marvel projects!
Avatar: The Way of Water is playing in theatres.
Source: Discussing Film
