"Avatar: Fire and Ash" has surpassed the $1 billion mark at the global box office, as it kept the top spot in North American theaters with another $40 million in ticket sales, industry estimates showed on Jan. 4.
The third installment in director James Cameron's blockbuster series has now earned $306 million in the United States and Canada, and another $777 million abroad, putting the total at $1.08 billion, Exhibitor Relations reported.
"Fire and Ash" stars Zoe Saldana as Na'vi warrior Neytiri and Sam Worthington as ex-Marine Jake Sully, who must battle a new foe threatening their family's life on the planet Pandora.
It is the fourth Cameron film to pass the $1 billion mark, with the first two "Avatar" films and "Titanic."
With “Avatar” and a wide variety of smaller hits, Hollywood started 2026 strongly. Overall sales were up 26.5 percent from the same weekend in 2025, according to data firm Comscore.
The movie industry is coming off a poor 2025, where domestic moviegoing continued to slide. U.S. and Canada ticket sales in 2025 amounted to $8.9 billion, a 2 percent increase from the year earlier, according to Comscore, but about 20 percent below pre-pandemic levels. That slight improvement was notably less than anticipated and was also boosted by higher ticket prices. Actual tickets sold declined from more than 800 million in 2024 to around 780 million in 2025.
In second place in North America was "Zootopia 2," Disney's feel-good animated film and an Oscar contender, at $19 million. Its global total now stands at nearly $1.6 billion.
Coming in third at $14.9 million was Lionsgate's "The Housemaid," a film version of Freida McFadden's best-selling novel about a young woman (Sydney Sweeney) who is hired by a wealthy couple (Amanda Seyfried and Brandon Sklenar) with dark secrets.
"Marty Supreme," A24's period sports drama starring Timothee Chalamet, finished in fourth place with $12.6 million.
"Anaconda," the new meta comedy action flick starring Paul Rudd and Jack Black as friends trying to reboot the original 1997 horror film, finished in fifth place with $10 million.
Rounding out the top 10 are "The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants" ($8.2 million), "David" ($8 million), "Song Sung Blue" ($5.8 million), "Wicked: For Good" ($3.3 million) and "Five Nights at Freddy's 2" ($2.7 million).
