It may not end up crossing the $2 billion mark, but“Avatar: Fire & Ash” is still a massive success for 20th Century and Walt Disney Studios. James Cameron’s third chapter in his Sci-Fi Fantasy franchise took in another $40 million over the weekend for $305.9 million domestic. The bigger story was overseas, where “Fire & Ash” earned another $169.6 million to cross the $1 billion mark worldwide in just 17 days of release.
“Fire & Ash” has now earned $1.083 billion and is the third movie released in the 2025 calendar year to hit that mark. The other two are “Lilo & Stitch” with $1.038 billion and “Zootopia 2” at $1.58 billion and counting. All three are Walt Disney releases.
Speaking of that Walt Disney Animation Studios’ blockbuster,“Zootopia 2” took in another $19 million over the frame to remain at no. 2 in its sixth weekend of release. A remarkable feat. Its domestic tally now sits at $363 million.
Third place went to “The Housemaid’ which has been a word-of-mouth wonder for Lionsgate. The adaptation of Freida McFadden‘s novel dropped only 3% from the previous weekend for another $14.8 million and a new $75.2 million stateside cume. Its international rollout is just beginning, but it took in a fantastic $57.3 million, and its global tally now sits at $133 million. The mini-major licences its films overseas, so its $35 million budgeted Amanda Seyfried and Sydney Sweeney thriller looks like it will be a major moneymaker.
Josh Safdie’s “Marty Supreme” barely dropped to fourth with $12.5 million and $56 million in just 11 days of wide release. The worldwide total sits at $57.8 million so far. A24 is expecting long legs for this Best Picture contender over the weeks and months ahead.
Sony Pictures’ “Anaconda” wasn’t the complete holiday breakout the studio was hoping for, but it took in another $10 million for a domestic cume of $45 million so far. Worldwide, the Paul Rudd and Jack Black comedy has earned $88.4 million. Considering its reported $45 mililion production budget, the meta-pseudo remake of the studio’s 1997 thriller is a nice double down the line.
“The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants” was down just 31% for $8.2 million and $57.6 million to date. Globally, the Paramount release has now earned $112 million off an estimated $64 million cost. At a minimum, it will breakeven for the studio.
Christmas and New Year’s may be long over, but Angel Studios’“David” continues to do very solid business. The faith-based animated flick took in another $8 million on just 2,900 screens for $70 million domestic so far. It’s now the indie distributor’s second-highest-grossing film of all time, surpassing last spring’s “King of Kings,” which ended its run at $60.2 million.
Performing a bit below expectations is Focus Features’ “Song Sung Blue” with another $5.8 million and $24.9 million so far stateside and $30.1 million worldwide. Depending on SAG Awards, er, Actors Awards, and Oscar nominations, the film may have more steam behind it, but it’s still skewing super old with 77% of its audience over 45. At an estimated $30 million production cost, thanks to NJ tax credits, “Sung” still has a shot to break even theatrically as its overseas release has just begun.
The sole new release this past weekend was Vertical’s “We Bury The Dead.” The SXSW premiere received mixed reviews from critics (60 on Metacritic) but could only muster up $2.5 million in 1,172 theaters.
Notably, NEON’s “No Other Choice” expanded to 45 screens for an almost $1 million gross ($991,250) and a superb $22,000 per screen. Its U.S. total now stands at $1.98 million, and global cume at $22 million.
New releases on Friday include Paramount’s thriller“Primate,” “Greenland 2: Migration,” Angel Studios’ “I Was A Stranger,” and the wide expansion of “Is This Thing On?”
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