The Avatar Trilogy Now Owns A Huge Box Office Record Thanks To Fire And Ash

For anyone who still believes people don't care about "Avatar," the numbers tell you otherwise. James Cameron's original 2009 "Avatar" remains the biggest movie of all time, with more than $2.9 billion to its name. Now? Cameron gets to claim the only $6 billion movie trilogy ever as "Avatar: Fire and Ash" continued to crush it over the Christmas holiday, coming in above industry expectations.

"Fire and Ash" pulled in an estimated $64 million over its second weekend domestically, representing a mere 28% drop compared to its $89 million debut ahead of the holiday frame. Over the full, long Christmas holiday, it added $88 million to its total in North America. More importantly, it added a whopping $181.2 million overseas over the holiday, representing less than a 30% drop. All told, Cameron's third installment in the "Avatar" trilogy has now amassed $760.3 million globally through two weekends, including a whopping $542.7 million overseas.

With that, the franchise has collectively generated just over $6 billion, which also includes $2.32 billion from 2022's "Avatar: The Way of Water," which became Cameron's third film ever to take in at least $2 billion globally. "Titanic" ($2.19 billion) is also on that very impressive list.

No other movie trilogy in history is close to that mark. The "Star Wars" sequel trilogy ($4.48 billion), the "Jurassic World" trilogy ($3.98 billion), Tom Holland's "Spider-Man" trilogy ($3.96 billion), and the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy ($2.96 billion) are the next closest. And most of those aren't pure trilogies, as fourth installments have either happened or are in the works. Those numbers show us just how successful these movies have been. The first two "Avatar" movies alone made more than the next-closest trilogy on the list. That's genuinely staggering to consider. 

Cameron is going to become the only director in history to have four movies in a row gross at least $1 billion globally. Christopher Nolan has had five movies in a row do $500 million or more, which is massive. But that $1 billion stretch? Nobody else is even close.

What's even wilder is that the "Avatar" franchise still has a long way to go. Cameron has long made it clear that he plans to make this a five-movie franchise before all's said and done. Because "Fire and Ash" is one of the most expensive movies of all time, costing north of $400 million, it was never a guarantee that it would make enough to justify the fourth movie. Now, though? It's well on track to convince Disney to keep the enterprise going.

"Avatar 4" isn't scheduled to hit theaters until 2029 and Cameron has suggested that it will be heavily connected to "Avatar 5," meaning that if he's going to make one more, he's almost certainly going to make two more. He's got some stuff to do between now and then, including potentially adapting "Ghosts of Hiroshima," but that's another conversation entirely. Even if the bottom were to fall out, if these two additional sequels do get made, we'd probably be looking at a $9 billion franchise when all's said and done, if not $10 billion. 

Not to get too ahead of ourselves, particularly in a rapidly evolving theatrical landscape, but we could be looking at a five-movie series where each installment averages $2 billion globally. That is truly difficult to fathom. Meanwhile, Cameron remains the unquestioned king of the box office.

"Avatar: Fire and Ash" is in theaters now.