Avatar: The Way of Water's score on Rotten Tomatoes is dropping

After a very long wait, Avatar: The Way of Water is finally out in cinemas and many film fanatics are heading out to watch one of this year's most anticipated films.

13 years after the groundbreaking original, 20th Century Studios and director James Cameron will be hoping for great numbers at box office.

According to sources close to Deadline, the second installment made an estimated $45 million (£37 million) on Saturday (17 December) following $53 million (£44 million) on opening day.

So while box office projections are looking good for Cameron and co, critic scores and feedback are also an important part of a film's overall success.

A good way to judge a film's overall critic and audience success is by looking at review-aggregation site such as Rotten Tomatoes.

When reviews started to be released for Avatar: The Way of Water, it had an 83 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

The highly anticipated film was awarded a Certified Fresh rating - essentially meaning the film is a recommendation.

20th Century Studios/ FlixPix / Alamy Stock Photo

But it appears that rating is now going down, as The Way of Water now sits at a 78 percent rating on the review-aggregation site.

And if the rating continues to dip and goes below a 75 percent rating, it will lose its Certified Fresh rating.

Recent reviews of the film have led to the score decreasing, with one of them coming from The Guardian who gave The Way of Water a 2/5-star rating.

Their review read: "Astonishing! Enthralling! Exciting! Immersive! None of these words could sensibly be applied to the three-and-a-quarter-hour Wet Smurfahontas stodgeathon that is Avatar: The Way of Water."

The New Yorker were also not a massive fan, they said: "The movie’s bland aesthetics and banal emotions turn it into the Club Med of effects-driven extravaganzas."

Dom Slike / Alamy Stock Photo

"Numbing, leisurely slowness," was a line from the BBC's review who also gave the second Avatar film a 2/5-star rating.

However, there were a lot of reviews praising The Way of Water, hence the still high Rotten Tomatoes score.

ComingSoon.net's review read: "Avatar: The Way of Water is the one film you truly must see in theaters this year."

And The Age's review said: "If Cameron truly believes in anything, it’s the power of big-screen spectacle, and more than ever he’s determined to give us the works."

Cameron and co are set on making three more Avatar films - with them hoping to be due out in 2024, 2026 and 2028.