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'Avatar's third chapter clears $1B in just three weeks

Hollywood kicked off 2026 with “Avatar: Fire and Ash” atop the box office for the third straight week and with hopes for a blockbuster-filled year after a disappointing 2025.

In three weeks of release, “Fire and Ash” has cleared $1 billion worldwide. The third chapter in James Cameron’s Pandora epic collected $40 million over its third weekend in North American theaters.

“Fire and Ash” is doing its biggest business overseas; it’s grossed $777.1 million internationally. 

The whole week was a lucrative one for Hollywood, with most schools still out. The most sustained success over the holiday belonged to a movie that opened all the way back in November. Yet Disney’s “Zootopia 2” has had remarkable staying power. It landed in second place with $19 million.

The animated sequel has amassed $1.59 billion in six weeks. That makes “Zootopia 2” Disney’s second highest grossing animated movie ever, trailing only 2019’s photorealistic “The Lion King” ($1.66 billion).

“The Housemaid,” the twisty thriller starring Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried, also emerged as a holiday-season hit for Lionsgate. It collected $14.9 million over the weekend, giving it $75.7 million domestically over three weeks. 

Just as Sweeney’s star power is propelling “The Housemaid,” so is Chalamet’s with “Marty Supreme.” The A24 release also held well in its third weekend, grossing an estimated $12.6 million. After two weeks of wide release, Josh Safdie’s frenetic table tennis tale has grossed $56 million in North America.

With “Avatar: Fire and Ash” and a variety of smaller hits, Hollywood started 2026 strongly. Overall sales were up 26.5% from the same weekend in 2025.

The movie industry is coming off a poor 2025, where domestic moviegoing continued to slide. U.S. and Canada ticket sales in 2025 amounted to $8.9 billion, a 2% increase from the year earlier, according to Comscore, but still about 20% below pre-pandemic levels. Actual tickets sold declined from more than 800 million in 2024 to around 780 million in 2025.

Studios are cautiously optimistic 2026 could be the best box-office year of the decade. A release slate is filled with marquee franchises, including new “Toy Story,” “Avengers,” “Spider-Man,” “Super Mario Bros” and “Dune.” 


SCREEN SHOT from "Avatar: Fire and Ash" (20th Century Fox via AP)
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