'Avatar 3' Crossed This Major Milestone, But It's Still Behind Parts 1 and 2

Avatar: Fire and Ash has crossed a major franchise milestone, but it’s still not up to the success of James Cameron’s previous two installments.

Avatar 3 Is Tracking Behind Its Predecessors

After just 18 days in release, Avatar: Fire and Ash has crossed the $1 billion mark at the global box office. That’s an astonishing success, especially as some industry analysts (and even Cameron himself) cast doubt on the film reaching profitability so soon. However, Fire and Ash is still performing behind Avatar (2009) and Avatar: The Way of Water (2022), both of which took less time to cross the billion-dollar mark.

Though Fire and Ash’s 18-day climb to $1 billion is undoubtedly mighty and indicates that Cameron’s threequel will perform in line with its two predecessors, it’s still the Avatar installment which took the longest to reach the milestone. Cameron’s original Avatar crossed the billion-dollar mark in 17 days, one day less than Fire and Ash; and The Way of Water took just 14 days to earn $1 billion worldwide when it hit cinemas in December 2022.

But It's Still a Huge Hit

Avatar went on to clear $2.9 billion worldwide, while The Way of Water took $2.3 million. Those numbers, and those Fire and Ash has posted so far, indicate a healthy but not fatal earnings decline with each chapter. However, the Avatar movies tend to remain box office draws far longer than their contemporaries, like Marvel and DC tentpoles which tend to be frontloaded in their earnings.

As far as blockbusters go, Avatar is more in line with the Dune series; both are slower but no less impressive earners which continue to play for months after release because they carry less FOMO than superhero titles. Also, because they’re on the longer side, it’s more important to audiences that they score the right seats and showtimes rather than the first available option. At this point, it seems likely that Fire and Ash will reach the $2 billion mark, though it seems a stretch that it will surpass The Way of Water’s cume.

Elsewhere, Sydney Sweeney finally has a much-needed hit with Paul Feig’s wacky-but-enjoyable domestic thriller The Housemaid. It crossed the $75 million mark in North America this week and is heading for a worldwide total of $120 thus far. A24’s celebrated Marty Supreme surpassed $55 million in North America this weekend; with about $3 million in international grosses, Josh Safdie’s kaleidoscopic ping-pong thriller is nearing $60 million worldwide. And at the specialty box office, Netflix’s limited screenings for the finale of Stranger Things earned about $28 million. The fan events were held at cinemas across the country on Dec. 31 and Jan. 1.