{"id":387081,"date":"2026-01-04T09:33:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T09:33:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/387081\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T09:33:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T09:33:11","slug":"avatar-3-hits-1-billion-sydney-sweeney-scores-a-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/387081\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Avatar 3’ Hits $1 Billion, Sydney Sweeney Scores a Win"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tAfter a bumpy 2025, the new year is off to a good start at the domestic box office<\/a>, thanks to a varied menu of holiday titles<\/a> that moviegoers are continuing to feast on before schools and college resume and extended work vacations end. Indeed, New Year\u2019s weekend revenue looks to be a post-pandemic best.<\/p>\n

\n\tLeading the pack, of course, is James Cameron<\/a>\u2019s\u00a0Avatar: Fire and Ash<\/a>, which flew past the $1 billion mark at the global box office on Saturday. Disney and 20th Century will announce full details Sunday morning. It\u2019s another notch in Cameron\u2019s belt, who already directed three of the four biggest movies of all time at the global box office, led by Avatar and followed by Avatar: The Way of Water and Titanic.<\/p>\n

\n\tAvatar 3\u2018s global earnings through New Year\u2019s Day (Thursday) were a mighty $935 million, including $266 million domestically and $699 overseas. On Friday, it earned another $14 million in North America from 3,832 theaters to finish the day with a domestic total of $280 million. Based on those returns, it should win the weekend with a chart-topping $36 million to $38 million as it crosses the $300 million mark in North America in addition to the billion-dollar milestone.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd, as of Saturday, it is one of only three Hollywood movies released in 2025 to cross $1 billion after fellow Disney titles Lilo & Stitch ($1.038 billion) and the record-smashing Zootopia 2<\/a><\/a>, which has grossed $1.51 billion to date since its Thanksgiving release.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\u2018Zootopia 2\u2019 was the fastest PG pic in history to clear $1 billion. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDisney<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd its still going strong. Zootopia 2 is expected to fall a scant seven percent in its sixth weekend to come in second with $18 million or more from 3,285 cinemas.<\/p>\n

\n\tEarlier this week, the sequel passed up Frozen II ($1.453 billion) to become the top-grossing title in the history of Walt Disney Animation Studios, not adjusted for inflation. It has also become the top-grossing Hollywood animated film of all time in China with a running total north of $560 million, and is the second-biggest film of all time behind Avengers: Endgame in 2019.<\/p>\n

\n\tDisney has enjoyed a banner year, amassing $6.5 billion in ticket sales for the first time since the pandemic.<\/p>\n

\n\tSeveral other titles are also holding in exceptionally well at the New Year\u2019s weekend box office. Lionsgate and Paul Feig\u2019s well-reviewed <\/a>sleeper hit\u00a0The Housemaid<\/a> could fall just six percent to $14 million for a domestic tally nearing $75 million.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe female-skewing thriller is a major win for all involved, and particularly Sydney Sweeney. The actress came under fierce attack for an American Eagle jeans campaign \u2014 she recently began addressing the issue <\/a>\u2014 followed by the disastrous box office performance of Christy, an awards vehicle for Sweeney.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tSydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried in Paul Feig\u2019s The Housemaid.\u2019 <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDaniel McFadden\/Lionsgate<\/p>\n

\n\tA24\u2019s high-profile\u00a0period pic\u00a0<\/a>Marty Supreme<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 directed by Josh Safdie and starring Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet<\/a> as a\u00a01950s table tennis champion<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 is another holiday stand-out. It was the biggest surprise of Christmas weekend in placing second with $27.1 million. The pic\u2019s Friday-Sunday haul of $17.5 million was the second-best showing in the history of A24.<\/p>\n

\n\tMarty Supreme is headed for a fourth-place finish this weekend with $11 million to $12 million from 2,887 cinemas. It continues to outpace Sony\u2019s\u00a0Anaconda and Focus Features\u2019 critical darling\u00a0Song Sung Blue, starring Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson. Alongside\u00a0Angel Studio\u2019s faith-based David,\u00a0Song Sung Blue\u00a0boasts the highest audience ranking on Rotten Tomatoes (98 percent) of any Christmas title playing nationwide.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tAnaconda,\u00a0rebuffed by many critics<\/a>, should round out the top five this weekend, followed by Paramount\u2019s\u00a0The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants, David and Song Sung Blue, which is based on the 2008 documentary of the same name about Mike and Claire Sardina, who performed in the popular Neil Diamond tribute band Lightning & Thunder.<\/p>\n

\n\tUniversal\u2019s Thanksgiving event pic Wicked: For Good is headed for ninth-place, while the weekend\u2019s only new nationwide opener \u2014 We Bury the Dead<\/a> \u2014 may have to settle for tenth place if it can\u2019t get much past $2.7 million.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tDaisy Ridley in \u2018We Bury The Dead.\u2019<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Vertical<\/p>\n

\n\tPlaying in 1,172 theaters, Zak Hilditch\u2019s indie zombie thriller stars Daisy Ridley<\/a>, and premiered at 2025\u2019s South by Southwest. The story follows a young married woman who travels from America to Tasmania in hopes of finding her husband alive. The U.S. military botched a nearby weapons test that obliterated the population of Tasmania, creating either a pile of dead bodies or zombies that gradually become more aggressive. Ava\u2019s husband, Mitch, had the misfortune of being on a work retreat there at the same time.<\/p>\n

\n\tBrenton Thwaites, Matt Whelan, Mark Coles Smith and Kym Jackson also star in the movie, which Vertical is handling.<\/p>\n

\n\tNumbers will be updated Sunday morning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After a bumpy 2025, the new year is off to a good start at the domestic box office,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":387082,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[34531,2642,145367,88,20380,56102,93324,56103,77793],"class_list":{"0":"post-387081","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-avatar-fire-and-ash","9":"tag-box-office","10":"tag-daisy-ridley","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-james-cameron","13":"tag-marty-supreme","14":"tag-the-housemaid","15":"tag-timothu00e9e-chalamet","16":"tag-zootopia-2"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387081","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=387081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387081\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/387082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}