Fire and Ash’ Poised To End Global Box Office Run $1.5 Billion Behind Original ‘Avatar’

Disney

Director James Cameron‘s Avatar: Fire and Ash isn’t displaying the kind of staying power that earned its predecessors — Avatar and Avatar: The Way of Water — spots in the history books. The threequel is on the verge of passing major milestones both domestically and worldwide, but is poised to conclude its theatrical run vastly under the first and second films. Released in 2009, Avatar remains the top-grossing movie in worldwide box office history with a $2.9 billion haul. Avatar 2 was released more than a decade later; it defied skepticism surrounding the franchise’s cultural relevance and grossed $2.3 billion worldwide. Avatar 2 is the third-biggest film in history, followed by a third Cameron hit, Titanic. With Avatar 3, the legendary filmmaker became the first person in history to deliver four consecutive billion-dollar hits.

But there’s no denying that Avatar 3 has fallen short of expectations, especially when you take its reported $400 million production budget into account. The movie has grossed around $385 million domestically and approximately $1.41 billion worldwide. It’s among the 20 highest-grossing hits in global box office history, ahead of Avengers: Age of Ultron and behind Barbie. The film continues to trail the first Avatar by around $1.5 billion, and Avatar 2 by around $1 billion. It’s also the least-liked installment of the trilogy, according to Rotten Tomatoes. Avatar 3 appears to have settled at a 66% score on the aggregator website, lower than the 81% score of the first film and the second film’s 76%.

The Status of ‘Avatar 4’ and ‘Avatar 5’ Is Unclear

The film’s underperformance has cast a shadow of doubt over the franchise’s future. As recently as last year, Cameron was convinced that he would return to direct the two further sequels that had been announced several years ago. However, in the immediate run-up to Avatar 3‘s release, Cameron began downplaying the sequels, suggesting that the theatrical market had changed and that he wasn’t sure if he wanted to commit another six years to the films. More recently, Cameron has said that if the fourth and fifth movies are ever made, they will need to cost much less than Avatar 2 and Avatar 3, which were filmed back-to-back. You can watch Avatar 3 in theaters. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.