NEW YORK (AP) — Hollywood capped a tumultuous year with strong ticket sales for “Avatar: Fire and Ash” and Timothée Chalamet's box office hit with “Marty Supreme” during a busy holiday weekend in theaters.
As expected, James Cameron's latest trip to Pandora dominated ticket sales, grossing $88 million over the four days from Christmas to Sunday and $64 million over the weekend, the studio estimated Sunday. While Fire and Ash initially opened noticeably softer domestically than its 2022 predecessor, Avatar: The Way of Water, it fared better in its second weekend. It only fell 28%, while The Way of Water fell 53%.
In two weeks, Fire and Ashes quickly grossed $217.7 million in North America for The Walt Disney Company. But the $400 million-budgeted film was a huge success internationally, grossing $542.7 million overseas. To match the box office heights of the previous films, both of which rank among the biggest blockbusters of all time, Fire and Ashes will need to maintain sales through the New Year and early January. If that happens, Avatar could become the first three-film franchise to cost $2 billion.
But much of the excitement in theaters over Christmas and over the weekend belonged to “Marty Supreme,” A24's biggest-budget release, Josh Safdie's table tennis drama set in the 1950s, which took in $27.1 million over the four-day weekend, a runaway success for the indie studio.
Chalamet went all out to promote the acclaimed release, including appearing at the top of the Sphere in Las Vegas. The strong debut proved that the 30-year-old star has a power beyond most of his contemporaries and marked a rare box office victory for a completely original film. The Safdie film costs around $70 million.
“Marty Supreme” even beat out the film most analysts expected to finish in second place: Sony Pictures’ “Anaconda.” The big-screen comedy starring Jack Black and Paul Rudd grossed $23.7 million over the four-day holiday weekend. That's still good for comedy, a genre that most studios have abandoned in recent years. But Anaconda (50% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) probably got bad reviews.
Hollywood is ending the year with its best Christmas box office since the COVID-19 pandemic, a celebratory final note to a tough year for the film industry. At the start of the year, expectations were high that the industry's first year of the decade would not be marred by either a pandemic or a strike.
“It was a really good end to a turbulent year,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore. “It's been a rollercoaster ride. I think it's the best news for the industry – I know we say this every year – but if you look at the 2026 roster, it's just incredible.”
But domestic ticket sales this year end at about a disappointing $8.75 billion in 2024. According to Comscore, with three days left in 2025, total box office receipts will be $8.76 billion. That compares with $11.4 billion in 2019.
This is an alarming development for movie theaters, which are now nervously watching Netflix's attempt to buy one of Hollywood's most legendary studios, Warner Bros. The highest-grossing film of the year was the Chinese-made Ne Zha 2, which brought in $2 billion. The most watched movie of 2025 was “KPop Demon Hunters,” a film that Sony Pictures sold to Netflix. Even the Oscar ceremony will be broadcast on YouTube.
What worked in 2025? Movies rated PG. For the second year in a row, PG-rated films outperformed PG-13 films. Domestically, PG-rated films grossed $2.87 billion, while PG-13 films grossed $2.78 billion, according to Comscore.
All three of Hollywood's biggest blockbusters were rated PG: Zootopia 2 ($1.42 billion worldwide), Lilo & Stitch ($1.04 billion) and The Minecraft Movie ($958.2 million).
Zootopia 2 even outperformed newcomers on the traditional weekend. It earned another $20 million in its fifth weekend. Powered by Zootopia 2, Lilo & Stitch and Avatar: Fire and Ash, Disney became the first studio since 2019 to earn $6 billion worldwide in a year.
However, expectations are already rising for a box office recovery in 2026. Major upcoming films include Super Mario Galaxy, Spider-Man: New Day, the Moana feature film, Toy Story 5 and The Mandalorian and Grogu.
The coming week, with schools closed and many people off work, is set to be one of the busiest weeks of the year for movie theaters. In addition to the best films, we hope to profit from a number of other releases.
These include Lionsgate's The Maid, a Paul Feig thriller starring Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried ($46.7 million in two weeks); “David,” an animated “David and Goliath” film from Angel Studios ($49.8 million in two weeks); Paramount Pictures' The SpongeBob Movie: Searching for SquarePants ($38.2 million in two weeks); and “Song Sung Blue” from Focus Features.
Song Sung Blue may be especially good for strong legs. The film, directed by Craig Brewer and starring Kate Hudson and Hugh Jackman as members of a Neil Diamond cover band, debuted over the holiday weekend with a four-day gross of $12 million. Audience ratings (CinemaScore “A”) were excellent.
Top 10 films by box office in the country
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, $64 million.
2. Zootopia 2, $20 million.
3. “Marty Supreme,” $17.5 million.
4. “The Maid,” $15.4 million.
5. “Anaconda,” $14.6 million.
6. “David,” $12.7 million.
7. “SpongeBob: Search for SquarePants,” $11.2 million.
8. “Song Sung Blue,” $7.6 million.
9. “Wicked: For Good,” $5.3 million.
10. Five Nights at Freddy's 2, $4.4 million.
