The Avatar franchise is less than 20 years old, and yet, the standards for the films at the box office are very different than for other releases. It's the inevitable result of the first movies in a series becoming two of the biggest worldwide box office successes in history. When that happens, expectations for future releases changes, as there is anticipation that all subsequent releases will earn similar superlatives. It's the biggest question mark surrounding James Cameron's Avatar: Fire And Ash, and its run on the big screen kicked off this weekend, and it will be fascinating to see what kind of legs it has.
Analyzing the release of Avatar 3 isn't the only subject to cover in this week's box office report, however, as a significant number of new releases dropped in theaters on Friday, and they made interesting competition for the blockbuster science-fiction epic – including Paul Feig's The Housemaid and Derek Drymon's The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants. Check out the full Top 10 below and join me after for analysis.
TITLE | WEEKEND GROSS | DOMESTIC GROSS | LW | THTRS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
1. Avatar: Fire And Ash* | $88,000,000 | $88,000,000 | N/A | 3,800 |
2. David* | $22,000,000 | $22,000,000 | N/A | 3,118 |
3. The Housemaid* | $19,000,000 | $19,000,000 | N/A | 3,015 |
4. The SpongeBob Movie: Search For Squarepants* | $16,000,000 | $16,000,000 | N/A | 3,557 |
5. Zootopia 2 | $14,500,000 | $282,809,929 | 1 | 3,540 |
6. Five Nights At Freddy’s 2 | $7,250,000 | $108,930,000 | 2 | 3,012 |
7. Wicked: For Good | $4,300,000 | $320,507,000 | 3 | 2,913 |
8. Marty Supreme* | $875,000 | $875,000 | N/A | 6 |
9. Hamnet | $850,000 | $8,760,000 | 10 | 617 |
10. Now You See Me: Now You Don’t | $600,000 | $61,075,000 | 6 | 718 |
Avatar: Fire And Ash Fails To Make A Domestic Splash As Big As The Way Of Water, But Money Is Rolling In Worldwide
When James Cameron's Avatar: The Way Of Water arrived in theaters in 2022, it was a special event. The sequel was more than a decade removed from its predecessor, and that time allowed hype to build and build and build – ultimately resulting in the film make $2.3 billion at the global box office (following the $2.9 billion success of the 2009 movie). This weekend, we learned the difference between 13 years of anticipation versus three.
While Avatar: The Way Of Water had what was the fifth biggest opening weekend of 2022 when it made $134.1 million in its first three days of release, Avatar: Fire And Ash had what will go down as the ninth biggest blockbuster debut of 2025 (per The Numbers), having made $88 million domestically since arriving in cinemas on Friday. That's more than what Dean DeBlois' live-action remake of How To Train Your Dragon made when it premiered during the summer ($84.6 million), but should the early numbers hold firm it's a smaller splash than what we saw for Julius Onah's Captain America: Brave New World in February ($88.8 million) and Gareth Edwards' Jurassic World Rebirth in July ($92 million).
The domestic numbers aren't all that impressive when compared to the performance of The Way Of Water, but one must not forget where the vast majority of box office numbers come from with Avatar films: overseas. There is no questioning that both Avatar and its first sequel were massive hits in the United States and Canada (respectively earning $785.2 million and $688.8 million during their theatrical runs in the region), but those figures in both cases represent less than 30 percent of what the two movies made globally.
Fire And Ash is already seeing a similar ratio play out in its opening weekend box office earnings. The $88 million it has brought it thus far domestically represents just a little over a quarter of the ticket sales from around the world. Foreign markets have seen the blockbuster make $257 million, which puts its present worldwide earnings up to $345 million.
Of course, there's a massive catch when it comes to the box office results for the Avatar features: they are ridiculously expensive movies to make. Variety reports that the 2025 title singly cost over $400 million, and that doesn't including marketing and publicity expenses. There is an expectation that each title in the canon is going to be a global phenomenon, and money is spent with that in mind. Outside of the Avengers movies, no other franchises exist on that scale today.
The Avatar movies have a secret weapon, though, and it's called "January." When it comes to the release schedule of any given year, the film industry tends to spend the first month in a kind of semi-active hibernation, and that has meant that there aren't any major titles to complete with. Fire And Ash may not always be the number one title at the domestic box office in the next five weeks or so, but it will very likely stay in the Top 3, and history suggests that will lead to some impressive final ticket sales numbers by the time it is done with its theatrical run.
Survey results from CinemaScore suggest that Audiences are still very much returning their trips to Pandora, as the new release got an "A" grade to match its predecessors. We'll see if that translates to the legs that will be necessary to ensure a bright future for the planned Avatar 4 in 2029.
David And The SpongeBob Movie: Search For Squarepants Magnifies The Strong Trend For Animation In 2025
It was inevitable that Avatar: Fire And Ash was going to be sitting at the top of the box office, but looking at the domestic results from the second-to-last weekend of 2025, one notes that the reinforce a trend we've seen all year: animated movies are doing really well. It's not a story of total domination, as nine out of the year's Top 10 blockbusters were live-action, but The SpongeBob Movie: Search for Squarepants and Brent Dawes and Phil Cunningham's David just a list of solid performers.
In the last three days, the latter, made by Angel Studios, made $22 million (which was good enough for second place), and The SpongeBob Movie: Search for Squarepants made $16 million, landing in fourth. Those are strong starts, but it's possible that they haven't actually peaked yet: with kids out for winter break and limited options on the way in the weeks ahead, these films could join Avatar 3 in demonstrating some staying power.
The Housemaid Is No Match For The Lure Of Pandora, But The Adaptation Has A Strong Debut
That lastly brings us to The Housemaid, which is based on the popular novel authored by Freida McFadden. The film, starring Amanda Seyfried and Sydney Sweeney, had to settle for a bronze medal this weekend, falling in between the aforementioned animated titles, as it made a reported $19 million during its debut.
It's a good start for a title that was never going to top the box office in its debut, and the critical response to The Housemaid has been positive enough to potentially keep audiences curious about it in the weeks to come. It is worth noting that the movie did outperform director Paul Feig's first thriller A Simple Favor, which made $16 million when it arrived in theaters in September 2018.
As interesting as this weekend's box office results are, next Sunday should offer some even bigger surprises, as everything currently playing will be competing with Tom Gormican's Jack Black-Paul Rudd comedy Anaconda, Craig Brewer's musical biopic Song Sung Blue, and the wide expansion of Josh Safdie's sports drama Marty Supreme. I'll be back next Sunday with a fresh column exploring the results, and you can start prepping for the year ahead by checking out our 2026 Movie Release Calendar.
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