Avatar: the way of the water lands on not one but two streaming services on June 7. In a press release on Monday, Warner Bros. Discovery that the James Cameron movie is coming to the company’s combined Max streaming service alongside Disney Plus.
It’s a bit of a rarity to see such a high-profile movie avatar debuts on more than one streaming service at a time, but it seems the shared premiere is all thanks to an amended agreement Disney made with WarnerMedia in 2021. Under the terms of the deal, HBO Max (soon to be Max) will be able to share the rights to films from Disney’s 20th Century Studios released in 2022 with Hulu and Disney Plus.
The way of the water first hit theaters in December 2022, and it proved to be another big hit for Cameron: according to Warner Bros. Discovery, the film is now the “third highest-grossing film of all time worldwide”. (The first avatar holds the first place.) And the addition of The way of the water could be a boon for the company as it aims to get people on board with its new Max streaming service, which launches on May 23. That said, because The way of the water will also start streaming on Disney Plus on the same day as on Max, the movie may not be as big a subscription driver as it probably would have been had it been exclusive.
