Avatar 3 opens with $345 million worldwide. The weakest start of the trilogy compared to its predecessors and their record results.
“Avatar: Fire and Ash,” the third part of James Cameron’s “Avatar” saga, has been in theaters since December 17, 2025. The first figures already show that Pandora remains a crowd puller in its third attempt, albeit with nuanced results compared to its predecessors.
Weakest start of the trilogy
“Fire and Ash” grossed around $345 million worldwide in its first weekend. This gave it the second-best worldwide theatrical release in 2025 behind “Zootopia 2,” which opened with $497.2 million. The third “Avatar” edition did not record record numbers. Part two opened in 2022 with approximately $435 million worldwide in the first weekend and ended its run with box office receipts of $2.3 billion. This means that “The Way of Water” has already recorded a noticeable decline of around 35% in the US market compared to the original. Part three started off as the least successful in the series. The reviews were also more mixed. With 68% positive ratings on Rotten Tomatoes, “Fire and Ash” achieved the lowest rating in the film series.
Editorial recommendations
In the shadow of the original
The first “Avatar” film from 2009 made record history and grossed a total of $2.9 billion, including $232 million in the first week. Its success was also reflected in its long-term stability: the film stayed at number one in the box office charts for seven weeks. Just like the second part. China is currently proving to be an emerging key market for “Fire and Ash”: with box office receipts of USD 57.6 million, the film is the most successful here outside of the USA and exceeded the opening grosses of both previous films.
Opinions on “Avatar: Fire and Ash” are divided:
Future of the saga uncertain
Both “Avatar” editions are in the top three of the most successful films of all time: “Pandora” at number one and “The Way of Water” at number three. In between, Walt Disney’s “Avengers: Endgame” from 2019 remains. How high the third Avatar film will achieve remains to be seen for the time being. Cameron himself has emphasized several times that the success of this film will largely determine whether part four and part five will actually be made. The scripts are already available, the 71-year-old director reported in an interview with TV Movie.