'Avatar 3' Soars Past Tom Cruise's Action Sequel as Box Office Run Nears End
He has covered everything from Marvel to the Oscars, and Marvel at the Oscars. He also writes obsessively about the box office, charting the many hits and misses that are released weekly, and how their commercial performance shapes public perception. In his time at Collider, he has also helped drive diversity by writing stories about the multiple Indian film industries, with a goal of introducing audiences to a whole new world of cinema.
More than two months into its worldwide box office run, director James Cameron’s Avatar: Fire and Ash seems to finally have run out of steam. The threequel certainly didn’t have the stamina of its two record-breaking predecessors, which maximized the potential of a Christmastime release and delivered majestic box office hauls against all odds. The first Avatar took over a decade to make and was released to mostly positive reviews in 2009. It ended up grossing $2.9 billion and is now the highest-earning film in history. Avatar: The Way of Water was released over a decade later in 2022; it made $2.3 billion worldwide to become the third-biggest film of all time. Avatar: Fire and Ash, on the other hand, hasn’t been as successful despite crossing the billion-dollar mark. It has, however, quietly overtaken a blockbuster that was hailed for saving the struggling theatrical market some years ago.
After nine weeks in theaters worldwide, Avatar: Fire and Ash has grossed just under $400 million domestically and more than $1 billion from overseas markets, for a cumulative global haul of around $1.46 billion. The movie reportedly cost $400 million to produce and millions more to market. Cameron has said that the franchise’s future would be contingent to Avatar: Fire and Ash’s success, and a far leaner budget than he has become used to. The new movie also happens to be the lowest-rated installment of the trilogy, according to the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes. It holds a 66% critics' score on the aggregator, and is the first installment of the trilogy to not earn a Best Picture nomination at the Oscars.
Here's the Final Movie that 'Avatar: Fire and Ash' Will Likely Overtake at the Box Office
However, the movie that it most recently overtook was certainly not ignored by the Academy. The movie in question is Top Gun: Maverick, which made $1.45 billion worldwide, of which a mammoth $700 million-plus came from domestic theaters. Directed by Joseph Kosinski and starring Tom Cruise, the movie was credited for bringing big-screen viewing back to pre-pandemic standards; Cruise, in particular, was praised for resisting pressure to release the film on streaming. Top Gun: Maverick now holds a near-perfect 96% critics’ score and a 99% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. Kosinski and producer Jerry Bruckheimer have said that a sequel is being planned. Kosinski is also contemplating making follow-ups to his latest hit, F1 — one idea is to cross the film over with Cruise’s Days of Thunder.
You can watch Avatar: Fire and Ash in theaters and Top Gun: Maverick at home on Paramount+. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
- Release Date
- December 19, 2025
- Runtime
- 197 Minutes
- Director
- James Cameron
- Writers
- Amanda Silver, Rick Jaffa, James Cameron, Josh Friedman, Shane Salerno
- Producers
- Jon Landau, James Cameron
Cast
-
Jake Sully -
Neytiri
- Prequel(s)
- Avatar, Avatar: The Way of Water
- Franchise(s)
- Avatar
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