Fire and Ash’ box office $88 million domestic opening

The opening weekend for Disney’s “Avatar: Fire and Ash” was less of a blaze and more of a simmer.

And that’s the expectation for the full theatrical run of the third installment in James Cameron’s Avatar franchise.

During its first three days in theaters, “Fire and Ash” tallied $88 million, falling well shy of analysts’ expectations, which called for a debut haul between $110 million and $125 million. For comparison, 2022’s “Avatar: The Way of Water” brought in $134 million during the same three-day period.

Internationally, the film collected $257 million, bringing the film’s global opening to an estimated $345 million.

“Fire and Ash” faced some theatrical headwinds, namely its over-three-hour runtime. There was also less pent-up demand compared to “The Way of Water,” which was released more than a decade after the first Avatar film. Some box office analysts and critics noted that “Fire and Ash” has less technological innovation than its predecessors, which had been a driving factor in past ticket sales.

Around 5.2 million domestic moviegoers went to see “Fire and Ash,” according to data from EntTelligence, a massive decline from the 8.7 million that ventured out in 2022 to see the opening weekend of “The Way of Water.”

Still, the Avatar franchise has never been front-loaded at the box office. The first film, 2009’s “Avatar,” generated just $77 million in its opening weekend domestically, but stayed in theaters for nearly a year. By the time it exited theaters, the film had generated $2.7 billion globally. With re-releases, the film now stands at $2.9 billion, according to data from Comscore.

“The Way of Water” ran in theaters for 23 weeks and has grossed $2.3 billion globally.

“With less than two weeks remaining in the box office year, the pressure on ‘Avatar: Fire And Ash’ to deliver big was intense and though the film may have come in a bit below pre-release opening weekend projections, the Avatar films have always been known for their marathon box office trajectories,” said Paul Dergarabedian, head of marketplace trends at Comscore.

Also aiding the franchise at the box office are premium large-format ticket sales. The Avatar films have over-indexed with the more expensive experiential screens like IMAX and Dolby as well as 3D showings. Disney reported that 3D and premium theaters accounted for 66% of the weekend total.

While 3D films have fallen out of favor with domestic audiences, they remain popular internationally —especially in China. Indeed, “Avatar” made the bulk of its money outside the U.S., with a whopping $2.08 billion coming from overseas.