Walt Disney Co.’s Avatar: Fire and Ash was the highest-grossing film at the box office this weekend with $88 million worth of movie tickets sold in the US and Canada.
The results trailed a forecast of between $100 million and $120 million from industry tracker Boxoffice Pro. Disney was projecting up to $90 million going into the weekend.
The film took in an additional $257 million in international markets, Disney said in a statement Sunday.
While the opening exceeded the first Avatar film, which brought in $77 million in its 2009 debut domestically, it fell behind the recent sequel, Avatar: The Way of Water, which generated $134.1 million in its 2022 opening weekend.
With their otherworldly 3D imagery and December releases just as kids leave school for the holidays, the Avatar films tend to draw audiences for weeks. The first two films each took in more than $2 billion in cinemas and rank first and third among the highest-grossing pictures of all time.
They’re not cheap to make or market, though. And since it’s come out with just two weeks left in the quarter, the newest Avatar will contribute to a $400 million shortfall in operating income at the studio in the current period, Disney said in November, before more revenue comes in next year.
The third film in the franchise created by director James Cameron, Fire and Ash features actors Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana returning to their roles as Jake Sully and Neytiri as they confront a new threat from the Ash People, a violent Na’vi tribe on the fictional planet of Pandora, which is rich in minerals humans want to mine.
Disney gained the Avatar rights as part of its $71.3 billion acquisition of 20th Century Fox in 2019. Disney already operated an Avatar-themed land at its Animal Kingdom park in Florida and plans another in California.
Fire and Ash caps a strong year for Disney’s film business with Lilo & Stitch and Zootopia 2 both generating more than $1 billion each at the global box office. Released in November, Zootopia 2 crossed that mark faster than any other animated release in Hollywood history.
