‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ couldn’t even win the battle of the sequels at the 2023 MTV Movie Awards

One would think that the third highest-grossing movie of all time would lend itself to mass popularity, but that is not the case (nor has it ever been) for James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water. The billion-dollar sequel was put to the popularity test once more at this year’s MTV Movie Awards, nominated for Best Movie among three other blockbuster sequels such as Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Scream VI, and Top Gun: Maverick. Would you like to take a stab at which movie won? Because it wasn’t Avatar. 

Although the nominees for the MTV Movie Awards are decided by the cable channel’s producers and executives, the final vote goes to the public, and the public, once again, couldn’t care less about Cameron’s epic science fiction spectacle. When all was said and done, Scream VI was decided the winner, and we were treated to a terrifyingly lovely acceptance speech from Ghostface. 

While Scream VI undoubtedly wowed critics and audiences by getting unofficially crowned one of the franchise’s best installments, not to mention scoring the first $100 million at the domestic box office since Scream 2, the movie’s success was a far cry from its fellow nominees. Both Avatar: The Way of Water and Top Gun: Maverick were 2022’s highest-grossing movies with $2.3 billion and $1.49 billion at the box office, respectively. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever was sixth on the list with $859 million, while Scream VI only brought in $168 million. 

Box-office success clearly does not equate to popularity. Despite being the highest-grossing movie of 2022, the highest-grossing movie post-COVID-19, and the third highest-grossing movie of all time, Avatar: The Way of Water keeps falling out of favor with fans. Even before hitting the $2 billion mark, it was labeled a box-office bomb. Moviegoers have a peculiar love-hate relationship with the film, one that has seen the film shut out of one awards show after the next.

It just so happens that Avatar: The Way of Water and Scream VI share a common denominator. Actor Jack Champion played the character Spider in the former and Ethan Landry in the latter. Like audiences, he apparently had more fun working on Scream VI, which, to our ears, sounds like a key ingredient missing from Avatar that could very well explain why it keeps falling out of favor with fans.