While a strong majority of modern movies tend to fizzle out at the box office following hyped opening weekends, James Cameron's Avatar series finds success in the long game. There is, of course, initial excitement generated when the titles first arrive, but the way the titles become some of the biggest hits of all time is because they keep bringing audiences in week after week. It worked for Avatar, it worked for Avatar: The Way Of Water, and we're now seeing it happen for Avatar: Fire And Ash.
The science-fiction blockbuster had a few films to compete with in its second Friday-to-Sunday run in theaters, including Tom Gormican's Anaconda arriving and Josh Safdie's Marty Supreme going from limited release to wide release, but Cameron's latest work managed to crush them all with a stellar weekend-to-weekend drop in ticket sales from its debut. 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 | $64,000,000 | $217,693,465 | 1 | 3,800 |
2. Zootopia 2 | $19,999,594 | $321,381,000 | 5 | 3,370 |
3. Marty Supreme | $17,522,628 | $28,291,996 | 10 | 2,668 |
4. The Housemaid | $15,400,000 | $46,460,000 | 3 | 3,042 |
5. Anaconda* | $14,550,000 | $23,650,000 | N/A | 3,509 |
6. David | $12,691,811 | $49,753,130 | 2 | 3,118 |
7. The SpongeBob Movie: Search For Squarepants | $11,200,000 | $38,171,000 | 4 | 3,570 |
8. Song Sung Blue* | $7,600,000 | $12,025,000 | N/A | 2,578 |
9. Wicked: For Good | $5,260,000 | $331,623,000 | 7 | 2,008 |
10. Five Nights At Freddy’s 2 | $4,400,000 | $118,969,000 | 6 | 2,280 |
After A Modest Opening Weekend, Avatar: Fire And Ash Remains A Dominant Box Office Force
Last weekend, the opening weekend numbers for Avatar: Fire And Ash were a touch tainted. While the title managed to easily win the weekend against a number of other new releases, ticket sales dropped off significantly from the 2022 performance of The Way Of Water, and there was question about whether or not the 2025 title would be able to showcase the same kind of long legs at the box office that made its predecessors two of the biggest hits of all time.
Looking at what the newly released sequel was able to do over the last three days, it would appear that all concerns have been dispelled.
In the wake of the Christmas holiday on Thursday, audiences in the United States and Canada got hungry for a return trip to Pandora, and the result is another box office crown. According to The Numbers, Avatar: Fire And Ash earned another $64 million over the last three days, which represents a miniscule 28 percent difference from the $89.2 million that it made in its debut. In 10 days, the film has successfully crossed $200 million domestically, and is now sitting at $217.7 million earned in the market. That means it is already the fifteenth highest grossing 2025 title in the region, having now earned more than Zach Cregger's Weapons ($151.6 million).
Pace-wise, this means that Avatar 3 has continued to outpace the original Avatar from 2009. By its tenth day in theaters, Avatar was sitting at $212.7 million earned.
As I noted in last week's box office column, however, while any money made by Avatar: Fire And Ash domestically is great, the franchise is truly a powerhouse overseas, and it continues to wow audiences abroad. That aforementioned $217.7 million made in the United States and Canada presently only represents 28.6 percent of what the blockbuster has made worldwide: $760.4 million.
In the last week, the film has managed to hop over some of the biggest titles of 2025 in the worldwide box office rankings, including James Gunn's Superman ($616.8 million), Joseph Kosinski's F1 ($630.6 million) and Dean Deblois' live-action remake of How To Train Your Dragon ($636.3 million). Avatar 3 is now the seventh highest grossing movie of the year sitting behind Haruo Sotozaki's Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Infinity Castle, but it is expected to continue to climb higher and higher until it joins the other billion dollar titles of the year: Jiaozi's Ne Zha 2, Jared Bush & Byron Howard's Zootopia 2, and Dean Fleischer-Camp's Lilo & Stitch.
Because studios tend to not deliver their biggest titles to theaters in January, the expectation is that Avatar: Fire And Ash will continue to dominate through the early weeks of the 2026 movie release calendar. But will it ultimately be able to reach the $2 billion mark of its predecessors? Time will tell, and it's a development I'll be keeping a close eye on for at least the next month.
Zootopia 2 Gets A Nice Boost From The Holidays, Returns To Second Place
In addition to Avatar: Fire And Ash, last weekend saw a number of other new titles arrive in wide release domestically – including Brent Dawes and Phil Cunningham's David, Paul Feig's The Housemaid and Derek Drymon's The SpongeBob Movie: Search For Squarepants. The draw of all those titles managed to push Zootopia 2 from first place to fifth place... but much like how the Walt Disney Animation Studios release managed to rebound after losing its box office crown to Emma Tammi's Five Nights At Freddy's 2, the animated adventure has proven to be very resurgent.
Zootopia 2 made $14.8 million last weekend, and in the last three days it played in 170 fewer locations, and yet, its ticket sales saw a 35 percent boost. The film made added another $20 million to its coffers in the U.S. and Canada since Friday, which brings its total in the market up to $321.4 million. It has now surpassed the earnings of Ryan Coogler's Sinners and is the sixth biggest domestic title of 2025, and only about $20 million separates it from Jon M. Chu's Wicked: For Good to take over fifth place.
Anaconda Barely Places In The Top 5 Despite The Star Power Of Jack Black And Paul Rudd
There are a number of winners to be pointed at in the box office Top 10: in addition to everything highlighted above, The Housemaid only saw its ticket sales drop 19 percent weekend-to-weekend, and a $17.5 million take for Marty Supreme in its first week of wide release is a solid haul. Not quite fitting into that categorization, however, is the new meta comedy Anaconda. The movie features some great headliners in Jack Black and Paul Rudd, but it had to settle for fifth place in its big screen debut, and it only made $14.6 million.
It's not a great result for a film with a reported budget of $45 million (per Variety), and in addition to getting a rough response from critics, surveys returned to CinemaScore resulted in a middling "B" grade – suggesting that folks aren't going to rush out and tell their friends that it's a must-see feature. During this time of the year, it may still find an audience and grow some legs, but it's a tough start.
This brings me to the end of box office reporting in 2025... but I'll be back next Sunday to kick off 2026 with a fresh column continuing to follow the big screen journeys of all the aforementioned titles and more. Be sure to join me back here on CinemaBlend then!
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