Avatar: Fire and Ash is now at $760.4 million at the global box office, with the Disney sci-fi film's sequel approaching $1 billion in theaters.
It's currently earned $217.7 million domestically, but Avatar: Fire and Ash is doing particularly well internationally, where it earned an impressive $542.7 million after an impressive 25% overall drop. Avatar 1 and Avatar 2 were the number one movies worldwide within weeks of their release, each eventually earning over $2 billion. Disney hopes Avatar 3 will have the same staying power in theaters, and This is a drip feed of Avengers: Judgment Day trailers next to the film to encourage repeat viewings from superfans. James Cameron's three Avatar films, including Fire and Ash, have earned more than $6 billion worldwide to date.
The lingering question for Cameron is whether Avatar 3 will generate enough revenue to convince Disney to greenlight Avatar 4 and Avatar 5. Avatar: Fire and Ash grossed a whopping $345 million at the global box officewhich was enough to deliver the second-biggest opening weekend of 2025. But he was significantly inferior to his predecessor. Avatar: The Way of WaterWe are opening the weekend.
Avatar films with special effects cost a lot of money to produce, but they have historically generated billions of dollars at the box office. Avatar remains the highest-grossing film of all time (not adjusted for inflation) and earned a staggering $2.9 billion across multiple theatrical releases. Avatar: The Way of Water Meanwhile, it earned $2.3 billion, cementing it as the third-highest grossing film of all time, just behind Cameron's Titanic.
Avatar 4's release date is currently set for December 21, 2029, while Avatar 5 is slated for December 19, 2031. Cameron, now 71, will be around 80 by the time filming wraps.
However, Cameron has recently sounded a note of caution. Talking about Podcast “The City with Matthew Belloni”Cameron admitted he was nervous about Avatar: Fire and Ash's box office performance and was mindful of the “forces” working against theatrical releases in 2025. There is the potential for “consequences,” Cameron noted. “People tend to dismiss sequels unless it's the third Lord of the Rings movie and you want to see what happens to everyone, and in my opinion that's the culmination of the storyline, but that's not how the public may see it.” And there's the “one-two punch” of streaming and Covid, meaning fewer people are going to the cinema – 75% of the number in 2019, Cameron suggested.
When Cameron was asked how much Avatar: Fire and Ash cost to produce, he wouldn't divulge a figure, only suggesting that it's a lot of money and so the film will have to make a lot of money to turn a profit.
“That’s one damn ton of money, which means we need to make two damn tons of money to make a profit,” he said. “I have no doubt that this movie will make money. The question is, will it make enough money to justify repeating it?”
And on that note, Cameron admitted that he's “absolutely” willing to walk away from Avatar if Fire and Ash flops.
“I’ve been in Avatarland for 20 years,” he said. “Actually 30 years, because I wrote it in '95, but for the first 10 years I didn't work on it constantly. Yeah, absolutely, of course. If that's the end of it, cool.”
What about open story threads?
“There is one open topic. I will write a book!” Cameron replied.
Meanwhile, the Jack Black and Paul Rudd comedy Anaconda grossed $43.7 million worldwide. Josh Safdie's Marty Supreme, starring Timothée Chalamet, grossed $30 million worldwide after its limited release.
After five weekends, Disney's Zootopia 2 now earns $1.42 billion worldwide, with more than $1 billion coming from the international market. Zootopia 2 is the highest-grossing Hollywood film of the year. Will Avatar: Fire & Ash finally be able to defeat him? Zootopia 2 and Lilo & Stitch are the only two 2025 Hollywood films to top $1 billion so far.
And finally, Wicked: For Good opened in China this weekend and has already surpassed $500 million in global sales. Five Nights at Freddy's 2 (which became available for purchase on VOD platforms this week) has now surpassed $100 million internationally, with global production to date at $221 million.
Photo by Pascal Le Segretin/Getty Images.
Wesley is IGN's News Director. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can contact Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].
