From the Disney movie “Avatar: Fire and Ash”.
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The opening weekend will be disney’s Avatar: Fire and Ash was more of a simmer than a firestorm.
That’s the expectation for the theatrical release of the third installment of James Cameron’s Avatar series.
Fire and Ash grossed $88 million in its first three days in theaters, far below analysts’ expectations for its opening box office gross of $110 million to $125 million. For comparison, 2022’s “Avatar: The Way of Water” brought in $134 million in box office revenue over the same three days.
The film raked in $257 million internationally, with an estimated worldwide opening of $345 million.
“Fire and Ash” faced theatrical headwinds with a running time of over three hours. It also had less pent-up demand than “The Way of Water,” which was released more than a decade after the first Avatar movie. Some box office analysts and critics have noted that Fire and Ash had fewer innovations than its predecessor, which had been a driver of ticket sales in the past.
According to data from EntTelligence, approximately 5.2 million domestic moviegoers went to see “Fire and Ashes,” a significant decrease from the 8.7 million who went to see “The Way of Water” on its opening day in 2022.
Still, the Avatar series has never been ahead of its time at the box office. The first Avatar film, released in 2009, grossed just $77 million in its opening weekend domestically, but remained in theaters for nearly a year. By the time of its theatrical release, the film had grossed $2.7 billion worldwide. Including re-releases, the film now has a box office gross of $2.9 billion, according to ComScore data.
“The Way of Water” ran in theaters for 23 weeks and grossed $2.3 billion worldwide.
“With less than two weeks left in this year’s box office, there’s a lot of pressure on Avatar: Fire and Ash to be a big hit, and while the film may have missed its pre-release weekend opening expectations a bit, Avatar films are always known for their marathon box office trajectories,” said Paul Dergarabedian, Head of Marketplace Trends at Comscore.
Premium large-format ticket sales also support the franchise with box office revenue. Avatar movies are over-indexed with more expensive experiential screens and 3D screenings like IMAX and Dolby. Disney reported that 3D and premium theaters accounted for 66% of the weekend.
Although 3D movies are no longer popular with domestic viewers, they are still popular overseas, especially in China. In fact, “Avatar” earned the majority of its revenue outside the United States, with a whopping $2.08 billion coming from overseas.
