{"id":195236,"date":"2025-12-20T18:23:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-20T18:23:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/195236\/"},"modified":"2025-12-20T18:23:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-20T18:23:07","slug":"fire-and-ash-ignites-to-36-5-million","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/195236\/","title":{"rendered":"Fire and Ash’ Ignites to $36.5 Million"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tJames Cameron\u2019s \u201cAvatar: Fire and Ash<\/a>\u201d is already setting the domestic box office ablaze.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cFire and Ash,\u201d the third installment in Disney\u2019s sci-fi saga, grossed $36.5 million from 3,800 North American theaters on Friday. The film is on track to reach between $85 million and $90 million domestically by Sunday. Including international grosses, it could climb as high as $365 million by the end of the weekend.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cFire and Ash\u201d is expected to debut above the first \u201cAvatar\u201d ($77 million domestically) but below the previous sequel \u201cWay of Water\u201d ($134 million domestically). Despite the relatively tempered openings, both films went on to earn well over $2 billion, with the first installment earning a towering $2.92 billion worldwide to become the highest-grossing movie of all time. If \u201cFire and Ash\u201d charts a similar course, \u201cAvatar\u201d would be the first blockbuster franchise in history to notch three installments all over the $2 billion benchmark.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAvatar: Fire and Ash\u201d follows Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), Neytiri (Zoe Salda\u00f1a) and their family as they fight against a tyrannical fire-wielding foe.<\/p>\n

\n\tSecond place went to Angel Studios\u2019 animated parable \u201cDavid,\u201d which earned $9.6 million domestically on its Friday opening from 3,118 screens. The family-friendly retelling of the David and Goliath Bible story looks to gross upwards of $25 million by Sunday. That would mark Angel\u2019s best three-day opening since 2023\u2019s \u201cSound of Freedom\u201d ($19.6 million), which went on to generate more than $250 million worldwide.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn third is Lionsgate\u2019s \u201cThe Housemaid<\/a>,\u201d which debuted on Friday to $8 million domestically from 3,015 venues. That puts the R-rated thriller on pace to reach $21 million by Sunday. Directed by Paul Feig and adapted from Freida McFadden\u2019s novel, the film follows a troubled young woman (Sydney Sweeney) who is hired as the live-in maid for an exuberantly wealthy couple (Amanda Seyfried and Brandon Sklenar) who harbor dark secrets.<\/p>\n

\n\tFourth place on Friday went to \u201cThe SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants,\u201d which earned $6 million on its opening day from 3,557 North American locations. The animated adventure looks to earn $15 million to $20 million by Sunday. Based on the long-running Nickelodeon TV show, the film follows the titular burger-flipping sponge and his best friend Patrick Star as they search for the ghost pirate known as the Flying Dutchman.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe No. 5 slot went to Disney\u2019s \u201cZootopia 2,\u201d which earned $4 million domestically on its fourth Friday at the box office. The film looks to grow its North American tally to $272 million by Sunday. The film recently crossed $1 billion worldwide<\/a> after just 17 days in theaters, making it the fastest animated film in history to reach the prestigious box office benchmark. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"James Cameron\u2019s \u201cAvatar: Fire and Ash\u201d is already setting the domestic box office ablaze. \u201cFire and Ash,\u201d the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":195237,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[30585,146,85,46,397,10792],"class_list":["post-195236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-avatar-fire-and-ash","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-movies","tag-the-housemaid"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}