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Avatar: Fire & Ash‘s opening box office hasn’t quite ignited the same way The Way of Water did, with a global haul of $345m from its first four days (including Thursday previews), compared to that film’s $435m opening en route to a final total of $2.3bn. Still, it’s a massive number in its own right, especially in a year that, the past month aside, hasn’t seen a lot of movies go truly big at the box office. It’s enough to catapult it straight into the top 20 of 2025 (at #17), per Box Office Mojo, and it’s overtaken the full grosses of several theatrical releases from Disney’s various studios, including:
- Snow White: $205m
- Predator: Badlands: $183m
- Elio: $154m
- Freakier Friday: $153m
- The Amateur: $96m
- Tron: Ares: $142m
- Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere: $44m
- Ella McCay: $4m
How Much Will Avatar: Fire & Ash Make?
Although Avatar: Fire & Ash‘s opening box office is impressive and important, historically that’s not what defines an Avatar movie. It’s common nowadays for movies to live or die based on that first weekend, but Cameron’s franchise is notable for its incredible legs through the holiday period and well into the new weekend, with repeat viewings, often in premium (i.e. more expensive) formats driving up the ticket sales, and that could well be the case again here.
There are a few reasons for optimism on how far Fire & Ash‘s box office can go. The fact that people will want to go see it in IMAX, where there are fewer screens and thus more sold out showings, is part of why these movies have such strong legs, so there should still be plenty to come there.
There’s no four-quadrant blockbuster or IMAX competition, so while things like The Housemaid and Marty Supreme will draw an audience, it shouldn’t be taking away from Avatar. And the movie’s weaker reviews might have hurt its box office debut – it has just 67% on Rotten Tomatoes, the franchise’s lowest – but word of mouth is very positive: 91% with audiences on Rotten Tomatoes, and an A CinemaScore, which are both comparable to The Way of Water.
