After playing in theaters worldwide for more than 50 days, James Cameron‘s Avatar: Fire and Ash dropped out of the domestic top five this past weekend. The epic threequel hasn’t been as successful as its record-breaking predecessors, but it’s still among the highest-grossing films ever made. Avatar: Fire and Ash will probably pass its final domestic box office milestone ($400 million) in the coming days, but it seems poised to fall short of the $1.5 billion mark worldwide. It continues to trail the original Avatar, the highest-grossing film in global box office history, by around $1.5 billion. It’s also trailing Avatar: The Way of Water, the third-biggest hit ever, by approximately $1 billion. While Disney and Cameron ponder over the franchise’s future, Avatar: Fire and Ash can celebrate its latest achievement.
In its eighth weekend of release at the domestic box office, the movie grossed around $3.5 million and finished seventh on the chart. Avatar: Fire and Ash found itself being outperformed by fellow Disney release Zootopia 2, which has been playing in theaters for a longer period of time, but is simply refusing to die down. Zootopia 2 has made more than $400 million domestically and more than $1.7 billion worldwide — it’s the highest-grossing Hollywood film of 2025, and number two on the overall charts behind only China’s Ne Zha 2. However, while Zootopia 2 managed to score a Best Animated Feature nod at the Oscars, Avatar: Fire and Ash earned lukewarm reviews and was largely shut out. The threequel became the first installment of the blockbuster Avatar franchise to not receive a Best Picture nomination, and will likely become the series’ first entry to fall short of the $2 billion mark worldwide.
Here’s the Space Opera That ‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’ Has Overtaken
With a running domestic haul of over $390 million, Avatar: Fire and Ash overtook fellow space opera Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 this weekend. Directed by James Gunn, Guardians of the Galaxy 2 made around $389 million in its domestic run and around $870 million worldwide. It earned excellent reviews and is now sitting at a “Certified Fresh” 85% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, whose consensus described it as “dazzling.” The trilogy ended with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, which earned positive reviews as well and grossed nearly $850 million worldwide. However, Avatar: Fire and Ash cost roughly twice as much as any Guardians of the Galaxy movie, and its underperformance has raised questions about the franchise’s future.
You can watch the film in theaters. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
- Release Date
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December 19, 2025
- Runtime
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197 Minutes
- Director
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James Cameron
- Writers
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Amanda Silver, Rick Jaffa, James Cameron, Josh Friedman, Shane Salerno
- Producers
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Jon Landau, James Cameron