Featured Image Credit: 20th Century Studios
Topics: Film and TV, Entertainment
Claire Reid
Avatar: The Way of Water has finally been knocked off the top spot at the box office following an impressive run of almost two months.
The sequel, which fans waited more than a decade for, was a box office smash, grossing more than $2.176 billion worldwide. You can see what all the fuss is about in the trailer here:
Avatar: The Way of Water was released in December and was set 16 years after the first movie.
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An official synopsis reads: "[Former human] Jake Sully lives with his newfound family formed on the planet of Pandora.
"Once a familiar threat returns to finish what was previously started, Jake must work with Neytiri and the army of the Na'vi race to protect their planet."
The film was finally dethroned from the US box office top spot by M. Night Shyamalan’s Knock at the Cabin which pulled in $14.1 million over the weekend.
Following its release, Avatar: The Way of Water spent a whopping seven weeks at the top of the UK box office but has now also been pushed into second place behind Shrek spin-off Puss in Boots: The Last Wish.
The animated sequel, which stars Antonio Banderas as the titular feline, was met with glowing critical reviews and has an impressive 95 percent on review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes alongside a 94 percent audience score.
The movie’s success has led to calls for more films from within the Shrekiverse (as I have now dubbed it) and it seems Eddie Murphy, who voiced Donkey in the original movies, is keen for his own spin-off.
The 61-year-old actor said: “I'd absolutely be open if they ever came with another Shrek. I'd do it in two seconds. I love Donkey.”
Murphy appreciates that the ball is in DreamWorks’ court but reiterated that he’s ‘sitting and ready’ if they want to call him.
He told Etalk: “That's DreamWorks Animation. They have to want to do it. DreamWorks, if you all want to do it, just call me. I'm ready, I'm sitting and ready to do Donkey.”
“They should have done a Donkey movie. Donkey is funnier than Puss in Boots. I mean, I love Puss in Boots, but he ain't funny as the Donkey.”
And all the way back in 2017, fans were told a fifth Shrek movie was all written up and ready to go.
Screenwriter Michael McCullers told The Hollywood Reporter: "I finished that script, which I really, really, really love.
"It's really personal to me. It's got a pretty big reinvention behind it that I guess I can't reveal."
He went on to say: "Reinvention was sort of called for. There's been four movies and a lot of material, so the characters are pretty beloved and they're great characters, but you also have to think of a pretty new take at that point."
Bring it on.