Though James Cameron’s third entry in the fantasy franchise seems unstoppable, it’s performing worse week-over-week when compared to its predecessors.

Avatar: Fire and Ash narrowly defeats *28 Years Later 2 *at the box office in five-week winning streak

Though James Cameron's third entry in the fantasy franchise seems unstoppable, it's performing worse week-over-week when compared to its predecessors.

By Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman is a news writer for with previous work in MUBI Notebook, Slant, and the LA Review of Books.

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January 18, 2026 6:04 p.m. ET

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Stills from 'Avatar: Fire and Ash' and '28 Years Later: The Bone Temple'. Credit:

20th Century Studios;Columbia Pictures

- *Avatar: Fire and Ash *achieved victory for the fifth consecutive week at both the domestic and global box offices, but its performance is starting to flag.

- The third entry in the fantasy franchise helmed by James Cameron is significantly underperforming compared to 2009's *Avatar *and 2022's *Avatar: The Way of Water*.

- *28 Years Later: The Bone Temple *was only $300,000 away from No. 1 at the domestic box office, but its debut comes in well under previous projections.

The Na'vi have won the box office battle again, but the tide of war is turning.

*Avatar: Fire and Ash* secured its fifth consecutive win on both the domestic and global charts this weekend, earning $13.3 million in the former region, and $57.8 million in the latter, per Comscore. That brings the third entry in James Cameron's environmental fantasia to a domestic gross of $363.5 million, and a global gross of $1.3 billion.

These are staggering numbers for sure, earning the film the No. 3 spot on both the domestic and global leaderboards of 2025. This weekend's performance also narrowly edged *28 Years Later: The Bone Temple *off the top spot, as the horror sequel stuck a disappointing $13 million domestic premiere and $29.2 globally. But *Avatar*'s box office dominance belies a concerning set of stats for anyone invested in the future of the franchise.

Sydney Sweeney as Millie Calloway in 'The Housemaid'.

Daniel McFadden/Lionsgate

*Fire and Ash *is burning hot — perhaps too hot — and too fast to keep up with its predecessors. Both 2009's franchise starter *Avatar *and the 2022 sequel, *Avatar: The Way of Water*, were performing significantly better at this point in their release cycles.

By weekend 5, *Avatar *had grossed nearly $500,000 domestically, while *The Way of Water *had earned $517,600. By the end of their runs, both films had easily crossed the $2 billion threshold globally — a feat that may be out of reach for *Fire and Ash *if current projections hold.

*The Bone Temple*, meanwhile, which arrives in theaters only seven months after the release of the sequel it spins off from. *Variety *projected the film would gross between $20 million and $22 million domestically in its premiere, an estimate upheld by *Deadline Hollywood*. Though the otherworldly zombie thriller has received plenty of glowing praise, it fell significantly short of those projections in its debut.

'Avatar: Fire and Ash' burns through $1 billion at the global box office

This actor just dethroned Scarlett Johansson as the highest-grossing movie star at the box office

Elsewhere at the box office, *Zootopia 2 *continues to add cash to its coffers, with an $8.7 million domestic take in weekend 8, and a $33 million take globally. The film now stands at over $1.7 billion from the global market, making it the highest-grossing animated film in Hollywood history.

Paul Feig and Josh Safdie have also wrought genuine original hits with their respective 2025 releases, *The Housemaid *and *Marty Supreme*. Though the former film was adapted from a novel by Freida McFadden, both films represent welcome success where original ideas are concerned, after a glut of sequels from *Zootopia 2 *to *Wicked: For Good* to *Five Nights at Freddy's 2* dominated the box office.

*The Housemaid *came in at No. 4 domestically in its fifth week of release with an $8.5 million take. The pulpy thriller starring Amanda Seyfried and Sydney Sweeney now boasts over $100 million from domestic proceeds alone on an estimated $35 million budget. *Marty Supreme*, meanwhile, came in at No. 5 domestically, also in week 5, with a $5.4 million take.

Next weekend, the crop of films vying for box office glory doesn't contain any clear hits. But if *Avatar: Fire and Ash*'s performance continues to flag, Chris Pratt and Rebecca Ferguson's sci-fi thriller *Mercy *could vault to No. 1.

The new film from Kazakh-Russian director** **Timur Bekmambetov, known for directing and producing screenlife thrillers like *Searching *and *Profile*, follows a detective (Pratt) who must prove to an AI judge that he didn't murder his wife. Next weekend also sees the releases of *Return to Silent Hill*, another foreboding adaptation of lore from the beloved video game franchise, and the literary adaptation *H is For Hawk*, starring Claire Foy.**

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