{"id":358939,"date":"2025-12-19T19:59:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T19:59:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/358939\/"},"modified":"2025-12-19T19:59:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T19:59:13","slug":"james-camerons-pic-fires-up-12m-in-u-s-previews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/358939\/","title":{"rendered":"James Cameron’s Pic Fires Up 12M in U.S. Previews"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tJames Cameron<\/a>\u2018s highly anticipated Avatar: Fire and Ash delivered $12 million in Thursday previews at the North American box office<\/a> as it begins its global assault to close out the year in fine Na\u2019vi style.<\/p>\n

\n\tOverseas, where it began opening in select markets midweek, the 20th Century and Disney tentpole has already grossed $60 million, including a stellar opening day of $17 million in China. The film is earning glowing exit scores, despite its running time of more than three and a quarter hours.<\/p>\n

\n\tAvatar: Fire and Ash is tracking to open domestically in the $95 million to $105 million range, versus the $134 million earned by Avatar: The Way of the Water, which brought in $17 million in previews. <\/p>\n

\n\tWay of Water\u00a0had nine full days of play before the Christmas actual holiday, while\u00a0Fire and Ash\u00a0has six days, with the theory being that some audiences will wait for the actual holiday to see the movie.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe first Avatar was all but lambasted when opening to $77 million in 2009, but the angst soon ended as the film picked up momentum on its way to becoming the top-grossing film of all time at the worldwide\u00a0box office\u00a0with an astounding $2.97 billion, not adjusted for inflation. It still holds that honor, followed by Marvel\u2019s: Avengers: Endgame and two more Cameron titles, Way of Water and Titanic.<\/p>\n

\n\tAvatar: Fire and Ash\u00a0isn\u2019t the only movie taking a seat at this year\u2019s holiday feast.<\/p>\n

\n\tAlso opening nationwide over the Dec. 19-21 weekend are Paramount\u2019s family pic\u00a0The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants, which earned $1.4 million in previews, and Lionsgate\u2019s\u00a0R-rated thriller\u00a0<\/a>The Housemaid<\/a>, starring\u00a0Amanda Seyfried and Sydney Sweeney<\/a>. The film, a throwback to the 1990s, will be a key test for Sweeney following her failed Oscar hopeful,\u00a0Christy, and is hoping for a launch in the $20 million to $25 million range after earning a $2.2 million in previews. The Angel Studios animated feature\u00a0David\u00a0is also tracking in the $20 million to $25 range.<\/p>\n

\n\t Another round of films open Christmas Day, including Sony\u2019s\u00a0Anaconda\u00a0reboot (no one is quite sure where it is going to land.) On the prestige side of the aisle, Oscar hopefuls\u00a0Marty Supreme, starring Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet, and Hugh Jackman-Kate Hudson starrer\u00a0Sing Song Blue\u00a0also open nationwide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"James Cameron\u2018s highly anticipated Avatar: Fire and Ash delivered $12 million in Thursday previews at the North American…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":358940,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[64,63,14711,5604,134,9164,344,93905],"class_list":{"0":"post-358939","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-avatar-fire-and-ash","11":"tag-box-office","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-james-cameron","14":"tag-movies","15":"tag-the-housemaid"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=358939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/358940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}