NEW YORK — NEW YORK (AP) — “Avatar: Fire and Ash” The studio estimated Sunday that it opened with $345 million worldwide, marking the second-best global debut of the year and potentially setting James Cameron up for even more blockbuster records.
Sixteen years after the Avatar saga began, Pandora is still a box office success. “Fire and Ashes”, third film Cameron's sci-fi franchiselaunched with $88 million domestically and $257 million overseas. The only film to be released in 2025 is Zootopia 2 ($497.2 million in three days). In the coming weeks, Fire and Ashes will benefit greatly from the highly lucrative holiday moviegoing channel.
But Avatar, which came out three years after that, had a little less fanfare. Avatar: The Way of Water. This film opened in 2022 with a whopping $435 million worldwide and $134 million in North America. In the domestic market, “Fire and Ashes” fell by as much as 35% compared to its predecessor. Reviews for Fire and Ashes have also been more mixed, with the film receiving a low 68% “fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
However, these quibbles are merely a product of Avatar's high standards. The first two films are among the top three highest-grossing films of all time. To reach these heights, the Avatar films relied more on their legs than on huge openings.
Avatar (2009) opened with $77 million domestically, but held the top spot for seven weeks. It ultimately grossed $2.92 billion worldwide. The Way of Water also maintained its position and ended up grossing $2.3 billion worldwide.
“The opening sequences are not what the Avatar movies are about,” said David A. Gross, a film consultant who publishes a newsletter by cash register numbers. “It's what they do after they premiere that makes them the second and third biggest films of all time.”
For Fire and Ashes to follow in these footsteps, it will require strong ticket sales that will continue for several weeks. So far, it's working in his favor: strong word of mouth. Viewers gave the film an “A” on the CinemaScore scale.
In interviews, Cameron has repeatedly said that “Fire and Ashes” must perform well in order for subsequent “Avatar” films to happen. (The fourth and fifth have already been written, but have not yet been greenlit.) These films are extremely expensive to produce. With a production budget of at least $400 million, Fire and Ashes is one of the most expensive films ever made.
“James Cameron is not known for his low-budget films,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore. “You can't create the world of Pandora on the cheap. If you're going to make a 3D movie, an epic movie that's three hours and 17 minutes long, it requires a huge investment of money, time, resources, and then you have to hope that audiences will want to continue that journey again.”
“Flame and Ashes” received particular momentum from premium format screenings, which accounted for 66% of its opening weekend. A slight majority of moviegoers (56%) preferred to watch it in 3D.
The Avatar films have always been particularly popular abroad. “Fire and Ashes” was the strongest performer in China, where its opening weekend grossed $57.6 million, beating the previous two films.
Fire and Ash didn't have the weekend completely to itself. A trio of other new wide releases have hit theaters hoping to offer some counter-programming: Lionsgate's “The Maid,” Angel Studios' “David” and Paramount Pictures' “The SpongeBob Movie: In Search of SquarePants.”
In the race for second place, “David” came out on top. The animated tale of David and Goliath grossed $22 million from 3,118 theaters, marking the best weekend for Angel Studios, the Christian-oriented studio that emerged in 2023 with the surprise hit “Sound of Freedom.”
“Housekeeper”, Paul Feig's twisty psychological thriller Starring Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried, it opened in 3,015 theaters on a budget of $19 million. The Lionsgate release, which cost an estimated $35 million to produce, is shaping up to be one of the best R-rated options in theaters this holiday season. In the film, based on Frieda McFadden's best-selling novel, Sweeney plays a woman with a troubled past who becomes a maid for a wealthy family.
Package tracking was “The SpongeBob Movie: Searching for SquarePants” which grossed $16 million from 3,557 theaters. The G-rated film, based on the Nickelodeon series, is the first theatrical SpongeBob movie since 2015's The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water.
With all the new films this weekend, they'll be hoping ticket sales continue to rise over the upcoming Christmas holidays. Starting December 25, they'll have to compete with some new wide-release releases, including A24's “Marty Supreme” with Timothée Chalamet; Focus Features' “Song Sung Blue” starring Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson; and Sony's “Anaconda” with Jack Black and Paul Rudd.
Before expanding on Christmas Day, Marty Supreme opened in six theaters over the weekend, grossing $875,000 or $145,000 per theater. That was enough to earn not only the year's best average across theaters, but also the best since 2016 and a new high score for A24. The Josh Safdie-directed film, which stars Chalamet as an aspiring table tennis player in 1950s New York, has become A24's most expensive ever.
Final internal data will be released Monday, according to Comscore. This list takes into account estimated ticket sales from Friday to Sunday in theaters in the United States and Canada:
1. Avatar: Fire and Ash, $88 million.
2. “David”, $22 million.
3. “The Maid,” $19 million.
4. “SpongeBob: Search for SquarePants,” $16 million.
5. Zootopia 2, $14.5 million.
6. Five Nights at Freddy's 2, $7.3 million.
7. “Wicked: For Good,” $4.3 million.
8. “Dhurandhar,” $2.5 million.
9. Marty Supreme, $875,000.
10. Hamnet, $850,000.
