‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’ Doubles the Box Office Gross of the Greatest Sci-Fi Sequel From the Last 10 Years

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Published Feb 10, 2026, 5:12 PM EST

Rahul Malhotra is a Weekend News Writer for Collider. From Francois Ozon to David Fincher, he'll watch anything once.

He has been writing for Collider for over two years, and has covered everything from Marvel to the Oscars, and Marvel at the Oscars. He also writes obsessively about the box office, charting the many hits and misses that are released weekly, and how their commercial performance shapes public perception. In his time at Collider, he has also helped drive diversity by writing stories about the multiple Indian film industries, with a goal to introduce audiences to a whole new world of cinema.

Swing and a miss > measured victory. Also, #JusticeForHan. (He/Him).

Having nearly completed two months of release in theaters worldwide, director James Cameron's Avatar: Fire and Ash is approaching what will likely be its final box office milestones. The film's trajectory suggests that this may be a more difficult task than expected. Although Avatar: Fire and Ash has established itself among the highest-grossing films of all time, especially when it comes to global numbers, it has fallen significantly short of its two record-breaking predecessors. The movie cost a reported $400 million to produce and perhaps an equal amount to market worldwide. It needed to gross more than $1 billion worldwide just to break even, and has done so. In fact, it became Cameron's fourth film in a row to pass the $1 billion mark worldwide, a streak that began with Titanic in 1997. But the filmmaker has set an unreasonably high bar for himself, so Avatar: Fire and Ash will likely be viewed as an underperformercompared to the first and second films. Compared to everything else, however, it's a bona fide blockbuster. For instance, Avatar: Fire and Ash has grossed twice as much as a recent sci-fi classic.

The threequel was released only three years after Avatar: The Way of Water, which defied skepticism to become the third-biggest hit in worldwide box office history. Avatar: The Way of Water grossed $2.3 billion worldwide, versus the original Avatar's $2.9 billion lifetime haul. Both the first and second films also earned Best Picture nods at the Oscars, an achievement that has eluded Avatar: Fire and Ash, which remains the lowest-rated film of the trilogy on Rotten Tomatoes. It seems to have settled at a 66% score on the aggregator website, where the critics' consensus reads, "Remaining on the cutting edge of visual effects, Fire and Ash repeats the narrative beats of its predecessors to frustrating effect, but its grand spectacle continues to stoke one-of-a-kind thrills."

Here's the Sci-Fi Classic that 'Avatar: Fire and Ash' Has Demolished at the Box Office

With more than $390 million domestically and over $1 billion from overseas markets, Avatar: Fire and Ash has grossed around $1.43 billion worldwide. This means that the movie has made twice as much as Denis Villeneuve's Dune: Part Two, which concluded its global run with $715 million against a reported budget of $190 million. While the Dune franchise will return with a third installment later this year, the future of the Avatar series is unclear. Cameron initially expressed excitement to direct at least two more movies, but has since downplayed them, citing budgetary constraints and the changing face of the theatrical market.

You can watch Avatar: Fire and Ash in theaters. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.