‘Avatar: Fire And Ash’ leads North American box office with $88m debut
Avatar: Fire And Ash led the pre-holiday period with an estimated $88m North American debut from 3,800 sites that was well behind the $134.1m bow of Avatar: The Way Of Water in 2022, which opened in the same weekend as the World Cup final in Qatar.
While this was a little below projections in the $90m range, Disney sources were nonetheless encouraged by the start for James Cameron’s third Pandora instalment as schools break up. The North American tally played its part in a strong $345m global debut that comprised $257m from international territories - in line with projections – and propelled the running total for the three sci-fi fantasy features from 20th Century Studios past $5.6bn.
It should be noted that the franchise builds strongly over time and this third instalment had a slightly shorter run-in, opening a little later in December than The Way Of Water (December 16, 2022) and Avatar (December 18, 2009).
Does the slighter debut suggest an over-familiarity with the franchise? That remains to be seen. Disney executives are confident the film will build momentum over the holidays and will hope Fire And Ash can cross $2bn globally and rub shoulders with its two predecessors. Avatar and Avatar: The Way Of Water rank as the number one and number three films in the all-time global box office pantheon on $785.2m in North America and $2.9bn worldwide, and $684.1m in North America and $2.3bn worldwide, respectively.
Avatar: Fire And Ash stars franchise regulars Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Sigourney Weaver, and Stephen Lang, as well as newcomers Kate Winslet and Oona Chaplin. The film scored 4.5/5 on PostTrak and an A CinemaScore. Premium formats accounted for 66% of the opening weekend, with 3D shows contributing 56% to box office. Imax accounted for $13m or 14.8% of the North America gross, which is the fourth-highest indexing for a domestic bow above $85m.
Box office analyst EntTelligence reported approximately 5.2m cinema-goers turned out and there was a 53%-47% male-female audience split. The Avatar films have now delivered three of the top 10 December openings of all time and The Walt Disney Studios releases occupy five of the top 10 domestic opening weekends of 2025.
The three-day weekend produced an estimated $178.7m overall, which means that year-to-date box office is tracking 1% ahead of 2024 by the same stage.