There’s no denying that Avatar: Fire and Ash is a global sensation, winning over audiences all over the world, with its box-office hauls proving that filmmaker James Cameron has another hit on his hands. Interestingly, some viewers have claimed that the Avatar series doesn’t have much of a pop-culture footprint, and in a sense, they might have a point. Backing up the fact that American audiences aren’t as enthusiastic about the franchise are the numbers that show that Fire and Ash needs to take in another $20+ million if it wants to be in the top three 2025 movies at the domestic box office.
Currently, Avatar: Fire and Ash sits at $397 million domestically, which puts it behind Zootopia 2‘s $420.6 million, Lilo & Stitch‘s $423.8 million, and A Minecraft Movie‘s $424 million. While it only sits at #4 on the 2025 domestic charts, Fire and Ash has fared much better on the global charts, as it’s only behind Zootopia 2‘s $1.8 billion and Ne Zha 2‘s $2 billion.
Walt Disney Pictures likely isn’t too frustrated with this performance from Fire and Ash, given the studio’s focus on international appeal for its titles in recent years, and having three of the top four domestic earners isn’t anything to bemoan.
Will ‘Avatar 4’ (and ‘Avatar 5’) Still Happen?
It’s difficult to determine at this point when Disney or James Cameron himself will pull the plug on the franchise, given the billions of dollars it’s earned across a trilogy of titles. As it stands, both Avatar 4 and Avatar 5 already have release dates, first in December 2029 and then in December 2031, so all parties involved have been quite confident in the franchise for years. What sets the next two films apart from the last two, however, is that Avatar: The Way of Water and Fire and Ash were filmed back-to-back, making it easier to bring such highly anticipated sequels to life.
The next two chapters of the story would likely be filmed at the same time, and during his press tour for Fire and Ash, Cameron fully acknowledged that he’s willing to walk away from the series if it seems like he’s not earning enough of a return on his investment. While speaking with The Town podcast, Cameron admitted, “I have no doubt in my mind that this movie will make money. The question is, does it make enough money to justify doing it again?”
On the notion of passing the reins of the franchise to someone else, Cameron confessed, “There are levels in which I [can] immerse. I don’t think there’d ever be a version where there’s another Avatar movie that I didn’t produce closely. But, in terms of it taking over my life, that’s a threshold issue for me.”
Avatar Has a Long Way to Go to Dominate All Franchises
With Lilo & Stitch being a new take on the animated Disney classic and with Zootopia earning only two entries so far, thus feeling like fresher IP, any decline in Avatar numbers can likely be attributed to franchise fatigue. In 2025, fans got three new entries in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, along with new chapters in long-running franchises like Jurassic World and Mission: Impossible. By the time Fire and Ash was released in December, audiences were burnt out on new chapters in familiar worlds.
Still, with only three movies thus far, Avatar has managed to crack into the top ten box-office totals of major franchises. When combining Marvel and DC characters into their respective studios, Avatar finds itself beside decades-old series like James Bond, the Wizarding World, and Star Wars. Setting the story of Pandora apart, though, is its shocking average per film, which is $2.2 billion. The closest competition would be Avengers films, but these are part of the overall MCU and therefore have a lower average when the whole franchise is taken into account.
With Spider-Man, Star Wars, Avengers, and DC all releasing new movies this year, they will only further their lead on Avatar’s franchise totals.
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