The long-awaited sequel Avatar: The Way of the Water is expected to open to at least $150-170 million when shipping in North American theaters on December 16, according to early tracking. And these are conservative estimates.

Realized by james cameron,The way of the water hits the big screen over 13 years later Avatar made history as the highest-grossing film of all time worldwide box office, a crown it still wears today with over $2.92 billion in ticket sales, counting reissues and non-inflation-adjusted. That includes a national tally of $785.2 million.

More optimistic observers believe the Christmas Corridor tentpole has a chance of becoming only the fourth December tentpole to cross $200 million in its opening weekend behind last year’s. Spider-Man: No Coming Home ($260.1 million), 2015 Star Wars: The Force Awakens ($248 million) and 2017 Star Wars: The Last Jedi ($220 million). One difference: these films were all fanboy events, while the first Avatar was more of a slow burn.

Cameron’s breakthrough film opened to $77 million over the weekend of Dec. 18-20, 2009, and then went on to some extraordinary legs.

Other variables: The way of the water is 30 minutes longer than Avataror three hours and 10 minutes, which means the sequel will have fewer sessions.

Avatar 2 hopes to join an elite club of longer Hollywood tentpoles who have done successful business in theaters, including Avengers: Endgame (three hours and 2 minutes) and Cameron’s Titanic (three hours and 14 minutes). The two films rank No. 2 and No. 3 respectively on Comscore’s list of the highest-grossing films of all time at the worldwide box office behind Avatarnot adjusted for inflation.

Disney inherited the Avatar franchise when buying 21th Century Fox, including 20th Century.

Cameron produced the sequel alongside longtime Lightstorm partner Jon Landau. It stars Zoe Saldaña, Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver and Stephen Lang.

In September of this year, Disney and 20th Century released a remastered version of the first Avatar in order to reward the public for the future. The re-release grossed over $76 million at the worldwide box office, bringing the film’s current gross to over $2.92 billion.

Water Way again focuses on Sully de Worthington and Saldaña’s Na’vi character, Neytiri. It picks up a decade after the original and follows their family, with additional stars including franchise newcomers Vin Diesel and Kate Winslet.

In addition to coming to the follow-up Wednesday morning, Disney said Tuesday night that The way of the water landed a coveted release in China December 16.