‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’ Conquers Disney’s $14B Crown-Jewel Franchise Sequel at the Box Office

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As a huge Avatar fan, I was thrilled to see Avatar: Fire and Ash hit a major box office milestone! While it didn’t quite reach the numbers of the first Avatar, it still managed to earn more than Frozen 2, which is pretty incredible. It crossed $1.46 billion worldwide, beating Frozen 2’s $1.45 billion total by around $9 million. Honestly, the fact that it beat a Disney sequel as successful as Frozen 2 feels like a really big deal!

Disney’s Frozen has been incredibly successful, earning the company an estimated $14 billion from various sources. The fact that Avatar: Fire and Ash has outperformed the Frozen sequel highlights just how profitable the Avatar franchise is for Disney.

The Frozen franchise has made around $14 billion in total revenue through four main sources. The two Frozen movies grossed over $2.7 billion worldwide, while sales of DVDs and Blu-rays brought in another $502.9 million. Live theatrical productions contributed $155.2 million. However, the biggest earner has been merchandise, which generated an estimated $10.59 billion between 2014 and 2018.

The incredible success of Frozen merchandise – specifically over a four-year period when the movie was most popular – is what sets the franchise apart. In 2014, a year after the first Frozen film came out, Disney reported a 22% increase in revenue, largely due to Frozen products. During an earnings call that year, Disney executives mentioned Frozen 24 times – more than all of their other major franchises like Star Wars, The Avengers, Cinderella, and Spider-Man combined. This news led to an 8% jump in Disney’s stock price the very next day.

Disney confirmed Frozen‘s incredible success in March 2024, revealing it delivered a return on investment (ROI) of 9.9x – making it their most profitable franchise ever. This far exceeds other major franchises like Toy Story (5.5x ROI), The Avengers (3.3x ROI), and Star Wars (2.9x ROI). Disney highlighted these figures to investors specifically because Frozen‘s ROI was so remarkably high, standing out even within a company known for its billion-dollar brands.

Avatar: Fire and Ash Still Impresses Despite Falling Short of Its Predecessors

Released on December 19, 2025, Avatar: Fire and Ash was predicted to be a long-running success rather than a box office sensation right away. This is typical for Avatar films – the previous installments both started with relatively quiet opening weekends but then built momentum through strong word-of-mouth and repeat viewings. The first Avatar opened with $77 million domestically and eventually became the highest-grossing movie ever, earning $2.92 billion worldwide. The Way of Water began with $134 million domestically and ultimately grossed $2.34 billion.

The new film, Fire and Ash, earned $89.2 million in the United States during its opening weekend – a bit less than previous films in the series, but consistent with director James Cameron’s typical performance. However, it performed exceptionally well internationally, bringing in $257 million overseas in its first weekend, making it the second-biggest international opening of 2025 after Zootopia 2. After just two weeks, the film had already grossed $760.4 million worldwide.

Wow, the movie really crushed it at the box office! Here in the US, it made almost $400 million, but internationally it blew up, earning over $1 billion! That brings the total worldwide to over $1.46 billion – almost $9 million more than Frozen 2 made in its entire run! And get this – all three Avatar movies combined have now made over $6 billion worldwide. It’s incredible to see this kind of success!

As a big fan of the Avatar films, I was really curious about how the third one would perform. It’s interesting – while some might see it as a disappointment, Avatar 3 actually holds the record for the lowest grossing film in the series. But honestly, that’s not so bad when you consider the first two movies made over $2.3 and $2.9 billion each! It even outperformed Frozen, which puts its success into perspective. So, while it didn’t quite reach the heights of its predecessors, it still did incredibly well.

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2026-02-24 12:05