\n\tJames Cameron\u2019s third installment in his groundbreaking Avatar series minted green at multiplexes around the globe over the weekend as the year-end holiday box office commenced in earnest.<\/p>\n
\n\tAvatar: Fire And Ash, from 20th Century and Disney, amassed $345 million in its worldwide opening, the second-best global opening of any 2025 Hollywood title behind fellow Disney Thanksgiving tentpole Zootopia 2<\/a>. And it\u2019s coming in almost No. 1 everywhere, even winning over tough markets including much of Asia and Latin America, where sci-fi can struggle. One surprise \u2014 it came in on the lower end of expectations in North America with $88 million.<\/p>\n \n\tThe film is earning strong audience exits, including an A CinemaScore, in line with the two previous films \u2014 despite its running time of more than three and a quarter hours. Disney insiders say this puts the threequel in the driver\u2019s seat.<\/p>\n \n\tThe first\u00a0Avatar\u00a0movie was all but lambasted when it opened to $77 million in 2009, considering its cost, 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<\/a>\u00a0with an astounding $2.97 billion, not adjusted for inflation. It still holds that honor, followed by Marvel\u2019s: Avengers: Endgame\u00a0and two more\u00a0Cameron titles<\/a>,\u00a0Way of Water\u00a0and\u00a0Titanic.<\/p>\n \n\tThe Avatar series has always drawn much of its strength from overseas, and early signs have Disney and Cameron\u2019s Lightstorm beaming. Imax, whose technology the filmmaker has always relied on, ponied up $43.6 million of the opening weekend global gross, Imax\u2019 biggest opening weekend of the year and among its fifth biggest ever.<\/p>\n \n\tIn terms of the foreign box office, Fire and Ash displayed resilience not only across English-speaking markets and Europe, but also pulled in big numbers in Asia, including South Korea and \u2014 perhaps most notably \u2014 China, which has embraced yet another Hollywood tentpole following the record-smashing success of Zootopia 2. In regards to Avatar 3<\/a>, China led all markets with a debut of $57.6 million. <\/p>\n \n\tHeading into this weekend, many tracking services had Fire and Ash crossing $100 million domestically, if not more, considering that Way of Water opened domestically to $134 million. Pundits have since come to believe Way of Water benefited from a great pent-up demand.<\/p>\n \n\tAlso,\u00a0Way of Water\u00a0had nine full days of play before the Christmas holiday, while\u00a0Fire and Ash\u00a0had six days, with the theory being that some audiences will wait to see the movie until preparations are done and presents unwrapped. All at the same time, threequels can sometimes struggle.<\/p>\n \n\tTwo movies in particular, possibly taking a bite out of Avatar: Fire and Ash over its opening weekend, were the faith-based David, from Angel Studios<\/a>. The pic debuted to $22 million from 3,119 theaters, a career-high for Angel.<\/p>\n \n\tLionsgate\u2019s\u00a0R-rated thriller\u00a0<\/a>The Housemaid<\/a>, starring\u00a0Amanda Seyfried and Sydney Sweeney<\/a>, followed in third place with $19 million. The film, a throwback to the thrillers of the 1990s, could be a key test for Sweeney following her failed Oscar hopeful,\u00a0Christy, and launched in third place with $19 million.<\/p>\n \n\tAlso opening nationwide over the Dec. 19-21 weekend was Paramount\u2019s family pic\u00a0The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants, followed in fourth place with $16 million from 3,557 theaters.<\/p>\n \n\tAnd at the specialty box office, A24\u2019s Oscar hopeful Marty Supreme<\/a>, starring Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet<\/a>, celebrated breaking into the top 10 despite playing in just six theaters. The sports biopic earned an estimated $875,000 to serve up a record-breaking per-screen average of $145,933, the highest in A24\u2019s history and among the best ever.<\/p>\n \n\tAmong specialty holdovers, Focus Features\u2019 awards contender Hamnet, produced by Steven Spielberg and Sam Mendes, among others, rounded out the top 10 and saw its domestic tally grow to $8.2 million.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"James Cameron\u2019s third installment in his groundbreaking Avatar series minted green at multiplexes around the globe over the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":362659,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[79982,152181,166186,2642,88,56102,7105,93324,56103,77793],"class_list":{"0":"post-362658","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-amanda-seyfried","9":"tag-angel-studios","10":"tag-avatar-3","11":"tag-box-office","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-marty-supreme","14":"tag-sydney-sweeney","15":"tag-the-housemaid","16":"tag-timothu00e9e-chalamet","17":"tag-zootopia-2"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=362658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362658\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/362659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=362658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=362658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=362658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}