Avatar: Fire and Ash’s $2 Billion Box Office Becomes Highly Unlikely

While ‘Avatar 3: Fire and Ash’ is a highly anticipated film, recent box office numbers suggest it might not reach the $2 billion in earnings that the previous ‘Avatar’ movie achieved. Experts are now questioning how well the film will perform overall, both in the United States and around the world.

Avatar: Fire and Ash’s latest box office standing

As of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend (January 16–19), Avatar: Fire and Ash has grossed over $367 million in the US and Canada, and nearly $955 million internationally, bringing its total worldwide earnings to over $1.32 billion, according to Box Office Mojo. The movie premiered on December 19, 2025, earning $89.2 million from 3,800 theaters during its opening weekend. It held the number one spot for five weeks, and most recently earned $17.2 million from 3,300 theaters.

Fire and Ash, a 3-hour and 17-minute film rated PG-13, was released by 20th Century Studios. It played in 3,835 theaters across the United States. So far, the movie has made most of its money internationally, with 72.2% coming from overseas and 27.8% from domestic audiences.

Released on December 16, 2022, Avatar: The Way of Water earned over $684 million in the United States and Canada and a massive $1.6 billion internationally, bringing its total worldwide earnings to over $2.3 billion. After just five weeks in theaters, the film had made over $571 million domestically, surpassing the earnings of Fire and Ash by more than $204 million during the same period (according to Box Office Mojo).

As a huge movie fan, I was following the numbers for The Way of Water closely, and its opening weekend was massive – $134.1 million from over 4,200 theaters! Even five weeks in, it was still pulling in almost $40 million over the MLK weekend. That’s a big difference compared to the $17.2 million Fire and Ash made. Plus, Fire and Ash isn’t doing as well internationally as the first movie did, which is a little concerning.

Based on recent performance, “Fire and Ash” isn’t expected to reach the $2 billion worldwide box office total that previous films in the series have earned. Declining weekend ticket sales and weaker international numbers suggest it will fall short.

Avatar: Fire and Ash is still showing in cinemas across the country and has now been playing for six weeks.

Originally reported by Anubhav Chaudhry on ComingSoon.

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2026-01-19 09:17