Fire and Ash’ doubles the gross of the most inexplicable sci-fi hit of the last two decades

As he prepares to cross the coveted billion dollar mark at the global box office, the director James CameronIt is Avatar: Fire and Ash is still ending its run as the least profitable installment of the series. But, as he’s already proven time and time again, it would be foolish to bet against Cameron, whose films tend to have the kind of legs that others simply don’t have. Avatar 3 has already shown his resilience in the three weeks he has been playing indoors and, with the support of the public, he will continue to perform in the weeks to come. Before reaching the billion-dollar milestone, which should happen any day now, the film scored a few major victories: It surpassed the worldwide budget of a lifetime. Christopher NolanIt is Creationand now it’s about to surpass the $870 global lifetime price of Renaissance of the Jurassic worldand then, the The $900 million mark at the box office.

Avatar 3 also doubled the haul for what is perhaps the most inexplicably successful science fiction film of the last two decades, Lucy. Released in 2014, Lucy was led by Luc Besson and titled by Scarlett Johansson. The film was based on the fringe concept that human beings only use a fraction of their full mental powers, as this gave Johansson’s character an inflated intellect that ultimately transformed her into a divine being. Produced with a reported budget of $40 million, the the film ended up grossing over $460 million at the worldwide box office. It has attracted controversial reviews, now achieving a score of 67% on aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, where the critics’ consensus reads: “Enthusiastic and silly, Lucy manages to overcome the film’s logical gaps with cheesy thrills and Scarlett Johansson charm – and mostly succeeds. “

‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’ doubled its production budget

Besson continues with his passion project, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planetswhich was partially funded thanks to the success of the first Avatar. But Valerian The results were so poor that they nearly bankrupted Besson’s EuropaCorp banner. Avatar remains the highest-grossing film of all time, with a worldwide haul of $2.9 billion. Avatar: The Way of Water is the third biggest film in history, with a worldwide haul of $2.3 billion. Avatar 3 got significantly lower critical reviews and now appears to have settled at a 67% score on RT. However, he found his announced a budget of 400 million dollars and is likely now on the path to profitability after crossing the $900 million milestone. Current forecasts call for its final gross to be between $1.5 billion and $1.7 billion. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.

Release date

December 19, 2025

Runtime

197 minutes

Director

James Cameron

Writers

Amanda Silver, Rick Jaffa, James Cameron, Josh Friedman, Shane Salerno

Producers

Jon Landau, James Cameron, Brigitte Yorke, Jamie Landau, Maria Battle-Campbell