Avatar: Fire and Ash Stumbles Out of the Gate With a Lukewarm Weekend Debut

Well, that was not the opening weekend James Cameron probably had in mind. The third Avatar movie, Fire and Ash, came in softer than expected, and the ripple effects could shape the rest of the holiday box office.

Avatar: Fire and Ash slips out of the gate

Fire and Ash debuted to $88 million domestically. That is under the $100 million prediction floating around all week and a steep $46 million below what The Way of Water cleared on the same weekend three years ago. For a franchise that usually prints money, that is a wobble.

Cameron has already said the future of Avatar 4 and 5 depends on whether the numbers actually justify the cost. If you are doing the math at home, an $88 million opening suggests Fire and Ash will land at only a fraction of The Way of Water’s $684 million domestic finish.

Internationally, the picture looks healthier. The worldwide opening is $345 million, which is the second-biggest debut of the year, behind only Zootopia 2. So the appetite is definitely stronger outside the U.S., at least for now.

Can it leg out over the holidays?

Possibly. Cameron movies have a habit of starting fine and finishing like a freight train once the holidays kick in. Titanic and the first Avatar were not monster-openers either; they just would not stop playing. Fire and Ash could still find that kind of stamina if word of mouth turns the tide over the next two weeks.

Elsewhere: surprises, sleepers, and one huge art-house flex

Angel Studios scored a legit milestone with David, its animated musical spin on David and Goliath. It opened to $21 million, the best debut in the company’s history and ahead of Sound of Freedom’s $19 million start. That likely dinged Paramount’s The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie: Search for SquarePants, which pulled in $16 million after looking stronger in early projections.

Lionsgate’s The Housemaid arrived with $19 million. Not great on paper, but the comps are interesting: think Sydney Sweeney’s Anyone But You, which face-planted with $6 million on this exact weekend two years ago and then legged it to $88 million domestic. The Housemaid could be built for that same slow-burn holiday lane.

Holdovers kept humming. Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 crossed $100 million domestic after a $7.25 million weekend, putting it at $108 million total. Wicked: For Good is shedding screens yet still added $4.3 million; it is up to $320 million domestic, below the first film but still solid in the bigger picture. The Bollywood smash Dhurandhar banked another $2.4 million for $12 million domestic, and Hamnet closed out the top ten with $850,000, pushing it to $8.7 million.

And then there is the story playing on only six screens: A24’s Marty Supreme. The Timothee Chalamet-led film sold out basically all day and still grossed $875,000. That is a $145.8k per-screen average, the highest in A24’s history and among the ten best live-action PSAs ever recorded. All signs point to a major hit when it expands nationwide on Christmas Day, though the real test is whether it plays as loudly outside LA and New York.

Weekend snapshot

• Avatar: Fire and Ash – $88M domestic opening; $345M worldwide opening (second-biggest of 2024, behind Zootopia 2). Cameron has said Avatar 4 and 5 are not guaranteed if the numbers do not justify the spend; $88M hints at far less than Way of Water’s $684M domestic total.
• David (Angel Studios) – $21M opening, the studio’s biggest ever, topping Sound of Freedom’s $19M start.
• The Housemaid (Lionsgate) – $19M opening; could mirror Anyone But You’s holiday surge (that one opened to $6M on this weekend in 2022 and ended at $88M domestic).
• The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie: Search for SquarePants (Paramount) – $16M; likely clipped by David overperforming.
• Zootopia 2 (Disney) – $14.5M weekend; $282M domestic to date.
• Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 (Universal/Blumhouse) – $7.25M weekend; $108M domestic total (and past the $100M mark).
• Wicked: For Good (Universal) – $4.3M weekend; $320M domestic, below the first film but still a sturdy run.
• Marty Supreme (A24) – $875k on 6 screens; $145.8k per-screen average, the highest ever for A24 and among the all-time top 10 live-action PSAs; expands nationwide on Christmas Day.
• Dhurandhar – $2.4M weekend; $12M domestic total.
• Hamnet – $850k weekend; $8.7M domestic total.

Bottom line: the holiday corridor is about to scramble the board. If Fire and Ash steadies and finds those Cameron legs, this weekend will look like a blip. If not, the next few weeks might decide how much longer we live on Pandora. Either way, the real winners will be the films that hold — or explode — between now and New Year’s.