Fans have had to wait 13 long years for the release of James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water—aka the sequel to the highest-grossing movie of all time, Avatar, which raked in more than $2.92 billion worldwide *and* collected nine Oscar noms, NBD. Per Deadline, tried-and-true fans of the saga clearly ran to the movies when it dropped, because not even a month after its theatrical release on December 16, 2022, viewers had already contributed more than $2.12 billion to the film’s box-office revenue. (BTW, a few months back, the Academy actually awarded Avatar: The Way of Water four Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Best Production Design, Best Sound, and Best Visual Effects—the last of which it won.)
All that said, chances are—given the more-than-a-decade-long pause—that Cameron liiikely didn’t want us to watch the film curled up on our laptops…but alas! Times are changing and I personally haven’t paid ~$30 for a large soda IRL at the movies in years. Whether you want to see what all the Avatar 2 hype is about or watch it for the 47th time, here’s everything you need to know about how to watch *and* stream the movie for my fellow lazy viewers.
Is Avatar: The Way of Water available to stream?
Right now, the film is mainly still only playing in theaters, but viewers can expect to see it on Disney+ in the future…the question is just a matter of *when*. According to People, Disney announced in September 2021 that its remaining films would have a minimum 45-day exclusive theatrical release.
If Avatar: The Way of Water follows that base timeline, the public can expect it to hit the streamer on January 30, 2023…aka 57 days ago. According to my constant refreshing on the Disney+ page, that clearly hasn’t happened yet! And maybe it won’t occur for a while longer given that other recent releases (like Black Panther: Wakanda Forever) began streaming 82 days after opening. Plus, if this movie is anything like the original Avatar (which stayed in theaters for a whopping 238 days), the wait could be even longer. 😬
So how can I watch the Avatar sequel right now?
As of now, the main way to watch Avatar: The Way of Water is to actually go to the movie theater in person.
Get Avatar: The Way of Water tickets
However (!!) if you wanna watch the film from the comfort of your own home, you are now able to use streaming retailers like Amazon, Vudu, Microsoft, and Apple TV to purchase it, and you can then rewatch as often as you like.
Has James Cameron said anything new about Avatar: The Way of Water?
For all its success, the Avatar sequel has gotten *some* hate when it comes to whether or not it’s made any real cultural impact. The director’s take, which he dished to the Hollywood Reporter back in November 2022, is as follows:
“If people are less likely to remember Jake Sully than, say, Luke Skywalker, that’s partly because Avatar is only one movie into its mythology. When you have extraordinary success, you come back within the next three years. That’s just how the industry works. You come back to the well, and you build that cultural impact over time. Marvel had maybe 26 movies to build out a universe, with the characters cross-pollinating. So it’s an irrelevant argument. We’ll see what happens after this film.”
TBH, fair!
Gretty Garcia is the assistant news editor at Cosmopolitan, where she covers all things news, entertainment, and pop culture. Before joining Cosmo, Gretty was a social strategist for Mrs. Dow Jones and a features and special projects editor at Editorialist. She holds an MS from the Columbia Journalism School and studied art history at Harvard College.
