The figures are in, and it seems most estimations weren't far off for James Cameron's latest Avatar release. While there were other movies to watch this past weekend, most box office trackers only had eyes on Avatar: Fire & Ash to see if lightning could indeed strike thrice for Cameron.
The film opened to $345 million worldwide as per Box Office Mojo, which already puts it well into the top 20 box office movies of the year so far. However, that's $90 million short compared to Avatar: The Way of Water's $435 million opening. Avatar: The Way of Water went on to earn more than $2 billion at the box office, so perhaps we won't see Fire & Ash match that figure, but if enough people keep going to see it, we're sure to see the number climb.
There could be problems with getting people to go and see the third Avatar movie, though. Firstly, it has worse reviews, with critics (including ourselves) mentioning that Fire & Ash feels like a long retread of the franchise's earlier plots. Also, there has only been three years since the last Avatar movie, meaning audiences aren't waiting with bated breath to return to Pandora like they were with the 13-year-break between Avatar and its sequel.
Elsewhere in the box office, we see Zootropolis 2 continue to climb, now hitting $1.272 billion in theatres. The Housemaid and The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants premiered in the US. Sydney Sweeney's latest film brought in $18.95 million while SpongeBob's newest outing took in $16 million.
Have you seen Avatar: Fire & Ash yet?