'Avatar: Fire and Ash' launches with $88M domestically, $345M worldwide
[December 22, 2025]
By JAKE COYLE
NEW YORK (AP) — “Avatar: Fire and Ash” opened with $345 million in
worldwide sales, according to studio estimates Sunday, notching the
second-best global debut of the year and potentially putting James
Cameron on course to set yet more blockbuster records.
Sixteen years into the “Avatar” saga, Pandora is still abundant in
box-office riches. “Fire and Ash,” the third film in Cameron’s
science-fiction franchise, launched with $88 million domestically and
$257 million internationally. The only film to open bigger in 2025 was
“Zootopia 2” ($497.2 million over three days). In the coming weeks,
“Fire and Ash” will have the significant benefit of the highly lucrative
holiday moviegoing corridor.
But there was a tad less fanfare to this “Avatar” film, coming three
years after “Avatar: The Way of Water.” That film launched in 2022 with
a massive $435 million globally and $134 million in North America.
Domestically, “Fire and Ash” fell a hefty 35% from the previous
installment. Reviews for “Fire and Ash” were also more mixed, scoring a
series-low 68% “fresh” score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Yet those quibbles are only a product of the lofty standards of
“Avatar.” The first two films rank as two of the three biggest
box-office films of all time. To reach those heights, the “Avatar” films
have depended on legs more than 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 held strong to eventually tally $2.3 billion
globally.
“The openings are not what the ‘Avatar’ movies are about,” said David A.
Gross, a film consultant who publishes a newsletter on box office
numbers. “It’s what they do after they open that made them the no. 2 and
no. 3 biggest films of all time.”
For “Fire and Ash” to follow in those footsteps, it will need robust
ticket sales to continue for weeks. Working in its favor so far: strong
word-of-mouth. Audiences gave it an “A” CinemaScore.
In interviews, Cameron has repeatedly said “Fire and Ash” needs to
perform well for there to be subsequent “Avatar” films. (Four and five
are already written but not greenlit.) These are exceptionally expensive
movies to make. With a production budget of at least $400 million, “Fire
and Ash” is one of the costliest movies ever made.
“James Cameron is not known for his low budget movies,” said Paul
Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for Comscore. “You can’t exactly
create the world of Pandora on the cheap. If you’re going to have a 3D
movie, an epic film that’s three hours and 17 minutes, it’s a huge
buy-in of money, time, resources, and then you have to hope the audience
wants to once again go along on that ride.”
“Fire and Ash” was especially boosted by premium format showings, which
accounted for 66% of its opening weekend. A narrow majority of
moviegoers (56%) chose to watch it in 3D.
The “Avatar” films have always been especially popular overseas. “Fire
and Ash” was strongest in China, where its $57.6 million opening weekend
surpassed the two previous movies.
‘David’ overperforms and ‘Marty Supreme’ sets a record
“Fire and Ash” didn’t have the weekend entirely to itself. A trio of
other new wide releases made it into theaters in hopes of offering some
counterprogramming: Lionsgate’s “The Housemaid,” Angel Studios’ “David”
and Paramount Pictures’ “The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants.”
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This image released by 20th Century Studios shows Varang, performed
by Oona Chaplin, in a scene from "Avatar: Fire and Ash." (20th
Century Studios via AP)
 In the race for second place,
“David” came out on top. The animated tale of David and Goliath
collected $22 million from 3,118 theaters, notching the best opening
weekend for Angel Studios, the Christian-oriented studio that
emerged with 2023’s surprise hit “Sound of Freedom.”
“The Housemaid,” Paul Feig’s twisty psychological thriller starring
Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried, opened with $19 million 3,015
theaters. The Lionsgate release, which cost about $35 million to
make, is set up well to be one of the top R-rated options in
theaters over the holidays. Based on Freida McFadden’s bestselling
novel, it stars Sweeney as a woman with a troubled past who becomes
a live-in maid for a wealthy family.
Trailing the pack was “The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants,”
which collected $16 million from 3,557 theaters. The G-rated film,
based on the Nickelodeon TV series, is the first “SpongeBob”
theatrical movie since 2015’s “The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of
Water.”
All of this weekend’s new films will hope the ticket sales keep
rolling in over the upcoming Christmas break. Starting Dec. 25,
they’ll need to contend with some new wide releases, including A24’s
“Marty Supreme,” with Timothée Chalamet; Focus Features’ “Song Sung
Blue,” with Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson; and Sony’s “Anaconda,”
with Jack Black and Paul Rudd.
Before expanding on Christmas, “Marty Supreme” opened in six
theaters over the weekend, grossing $875,000 or $145,000 per
theater. That was good enough for not only the best per-theater
average of the year, but the best since 2016 and a new high mark for
A24. The film, directed by Josh Safdie and starring Chalamet as an
aspiring table tennis player in 1950s New York, is the most
expensive ever for A24.
Top 10 movies by domestic box office
With final domestic figures being released Monday, this list factors
in the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and
Canadian theaters, according to Comscore:
1. “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” $88 million.
2. “David,” $22 million.
3. “The Housemaid,” $19 million.
4. “The SpongeBob Movie: 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.
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