Disney+’s most popular sci-fi series is having a huge week, continuing its success in movie theaters. Disney+ reports that the top three most-watched movies on the platform are all part of James Cameron’s Avatar franchise. Avatar: The Way of Water is currently number one, closely followed by the original Avatar movie.
Coming in third is a preview of the next Avatar movie, titled Avatar: Fire and Ash. Currently playing in theaters, Avatar: Fire and Ash is continuing the Avatar series’ tradition of huge box office success, and is likely to be the highest-grossing film of 2025.
It’s still uncertain if Avatar: Fire and Ash will earn over $2 billion at the box office, joining the ranks of the first Avatar and Avatar: The Way of Water. While reaching such a high number seems like a big achievement – very few films even reach $1 billion – the success of Fire and Ash could decide if the planned fourth and fifth Avatar movies are actually made.
It’s easy to lose sight of how challenging this industry is. People’s preferences change, and the market is always evolving. Right now, movie theaters are struggling – they haven’t recovered since the pandemic. We’ve seen a roughly 35% decline in business since 2020, and at the same time, the costs of making movies, including special effects, keep going up. Eventually, these factors could reach a point where it simply becomes impossible to create films on this scale.
Cameron then wondered what could be done to address these challenges. He believes innovative techniques like 3D and stunning visuals can draw audiences back to movie theaters, and he’s working hard to achieve that. He also suggested that AI might help lower the costs of visual effects, though he admits he hasn’t used it himself, and it wasn’t used at all in the making of Avatar.
Avatar Dominates Streaming and the Box Office
Released in 2009, Avatar was a huge success, earning $2.9 billion worldwide. Its sequel, Avatar: The Way of Water, came out in 2022 and grossed $2.3 billion globally. Both films are set on the lush alien world of Pandora and feature the Na’vi people. The stories center around Jake Sully, a human who connects with the Na’vi through advanced technology and builds a life and family on Pandora.
The new film, Avatar: Fire and Ash, picks up the story with Sully’s family and the Na’vi tribe facing threats from both the Resources Development Administration – Sully’s former organization – and a powerful Na’vi tribe called the Mangkwan, who are working with the RDA. While Avatar: Fire and Ash received the lowest critic scores of any film in the Avatar series – it’s the first not to be labeled “Certified Fresh” on Rotten Tomatoes – it’s proven popular with viewers and earned the site’s “Verified Hot” badge based on audience reviews.
You can now see Avatar: Fire and Ash in movie theaters. Plus, both Avatar and Avatar: The Way of Water are streaming on Disney+.
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2026-01-06 22:36