In 3 Days, Avatar: Fire and Ash Outgrossed Disney’s Sci-Fi Box Office Bomb

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October was a surprisingly bad month for movie theaters, with many new films failing to attract viewers. Disney’s Tron: Ares was a particularly notable disappointment. Despite being a new installment in the Tron series, it received mixed reviews and only earned $73.1 million in the US and $142.2 million worldwide, effectively ending the film series and reportedly losing Disney over $100 million. However, Disney has seen a strong recovery during the holidays. Zootopia 2 quickly surpassed $1 billion, and now Avatar: Fire and Ash is performing very well at the weekend box office.

Avatar: Fire and Ash brought in $88 million in North American ticket sales during its opening weekend, and $345 million worldwide. While these numbers are much higher than the total box office for Tron: Ares, the film didn’t perform as well as the previous Avatar movie. Avatar: The Way of Water earned $134 million domestically and $435 million globally during its opening weekend in 2022.

Will Avatar: Fire and Ash Have Strong Legs at the Box Office?

Heading into the weekend, experts predicted Avatar: Fire and Ash would earn between $90 and $100 million in the US. While $88 million is a good amount, it fell short of expectations and wasn’t a particularly strong opening for such a big, highly-anticipated holiday movie. The Avatar films are known for being very costly to make, and Fire and Ash is no different, with a production budget of $400 million. This means the film needs to make a lot of money just to cover its costs. Fire and Ash has already earned back nearly its production budget after its opening weekend, but that doesn’t include the significant costs of marketing and distributing the film, so it still has a ways to go before it becomes truly profitable.

Most franchises would be worried about a poor opening weekend, but Avatar is unique when it comes to making money. The previous Avatar films didn’t break records right away; they earned over $2 billion by continuing to draw audiences for months. For the new film, Fire and Ash, to be successful, it needs to maintain that same long-term appeal. How well it performs in its second weekend will be a key indicator of its overall box office results.

With Fire and Ash still being the most popular movie right now, it’s currently holding strong at the box office. While several new films – Anaconda, Song Sung Blue, and Marty Supreme – are being released on Christmas Day, none are expected to attract as broad an audience as a large-scale science fiction film made for IMAX 3D. These other movies are aiming for more specific audiences and hoping to offer something different. However, Fire and Ash‘s continued success isn’t certain. Its low score on Rotten Tomatoes suggests that people aren’t raving about it. Most viewers agree it’s visually impressive, but doesn’t offer a particularly original story, which could make some potential moviegoers hesitate.

Okay, so I’m a bit worried about the length of Fire and Ash. At three hours and fifteen minutes, it’s a big commitment, and that might mean fewer showings each day. I think it’ll probably still be number one at the box office for a second weekend, but everyone will be watching how much it drops after that. Remember how Avatar originally barely dropped in its second weekend – only 1.8%? The Way of Water had a bigger drop, around 52.8%. I’m guessing the initial excitement for Avatar isn’t quite as strong now, so it’ll be really interesting to see how well Fire and Ash holds up over time. It makes sense why James Cameron is being cautious about Avatar 4 – he wants to make sure Fire and Ash does well enough to justify making it!

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2025-12-21 20:41