After just over two weeks in cinemas, James Cameron’s Avatar: Fire and Ash, the third film in his hit franchise, has finally grossed over $1billion at the worldwide box office. Not only does this make Fire and Ash James Cameron’s fourth directorial billion dollar hit in a row, but Avatar has also become the highest grossing trilogy with over $6 biliion across all three films.
Currently, Fire and Ash sits at $1.083 with 71% of that coming from worldwide territories and 28% coming from the United States. How does this fair against its predecessor? Well, it still has a long while left in the theatre especially if you consider that Way of Water had an incredibly extensive run- roughly 6-8 months in cinemas. Now, with streaming tendencies changing and release lengths adapting to consumer patterns, it’s difficult to judge how long this third movie will remain on the big screen. However, while it may not be on track to hit $2 billion, the weekend drop offs around Christmas and New Year have been significantly less than Way of Water. After it’s first weekend Way of Water saw a drop of 53% and a four-day Xmas weekend gross of $95.6 million, whereas Fire and Ash saw a drop of around 35-37% and $88 million across the four-day Christmas weekend. So it is fairing pretty well.
Now, if it doesn’t reach $2 billion, is it considered a failure? Absolutely not. There’s a big major factor to consider in regards to its box office. Have a look at these box office results:
- Finding Dory- $1.029 billion
- Incredibles 2– $1.243 billion
- Star Wars: The Force Awakens– $2.071 billion
- Inside Out 2– $1.699 billion
- Avatar: The Way of Water– $2.343 billion
Now, apart from them all being Disney properties, all of these sequels were released close to a decade after their predecessor. Why is that important? Well, it highlights an interesting pattern where longevity and anticipation can boost box office results. This explains why The Way of Water did so well and may actually explain why Fire and Ash might not reach that golden number. There’s a 13 year gap between Avatar and The Way of Water, but only a 3 year gap between The Way of Water and Fire and Ash. It’s not to say that this is the only reason, but when you look at the other movies above, it’s a pretty interesting comparison.
In fairness though, we could be completely wrong and Fire and Ash could surpass expectations completely. Only time will tell, and it’s in Ewya’s hands now.
Check out James’ interview with Stephen Lang below:
The rest of our Avatar: Fire and Ash interviews can be found here.
The latest film in the franchise is written by James Cameron, Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver, Josh Friedman and Shane Salerno. Avatar: Fire and Ash is also directed once again by James Cameron. The film stars Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Oona Chaplin, Cliff Curtis, Kate Winslet, Britain Dalton, Trinity Bliss, Jack Champion and Bailey Bass.
Avatar: Fire and Ash is now playing exclusively in cinemas. Have you watched it yet? Let us know your thoughts in the comments..
James’ full review of Avatar: Fire and Ash is available to read here.
