Avatar: The Way of Water on Pace to Become Disney’s All-Time Best-Selling Digital Retail Title in the U.S.
On a August 9th fiscal call, Disney CEO Bob Iger told investors that Avatar: The Way of Water is on track to become the biggest selling digital retail release in the the U.S. Further proving the enormous money making power of the Avatar franchise. Iger went on to say, “We’re maximizing the full impact of our titles by embracing the multiple distribution windows at our disposal, enabling consumers to access their content in multiple ways. Certain other titles will be sold in the download-to-own window as well. We’re seeing tremendous engagement on Disney+ with the previous Guardians of the Galaxy films, the original Avatar and the first four Indiana Jones movies. But the value of our Disney entertainment studios and the reason this will be a key growth business for us extends far beyond our library and new releases.”
For me this is incredibly exciting, the original Avatar is still #1 at the all time box office (2.9b) and second in all time Blu-Ray sales. As technology has changed since Avatar released in 2009, home consumption is now largely digital and Avatar 2 is proving not only was it a huge hit at the box office (2.3b, 3rd all time) but people want to continue consuming the movie in their own homes, just as they did with Avatar 1. This bodes well for Disney support for the franchise in the years to come. Not only is another sequel on the horizon, but Disney wants to give Avatar a second land, this time in Disneyland. They more money the Avatar brand makes for Disney the more we will be rewarded as fans, and that is something I can fully get behind.