Hollywood starts 2026 with ‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’ at No. 1

NEW YORK (AP):

Hollywood kicked off 2026 with Avatar: Fire and Ash atop the box office for the third straight week and with hopes for a blockbuster-filled year after a disappointing 2025. In three weeks of release, the film has cleared $1 billion worldwide. The third chapter in James Cameron’s Pandora epic collected $40 million over its third weekend in North American theatres, according to studio estimates Sunday.

Fire and Ash is doing its biggest business overseas; it’s grossed $777.1 million internationally thus far. The Walt Disney Co. on Sunday trumped the $1 billion milestone as cementing another monumental achievement for James Cameron’s groundbreaking franchise. But over the holidays, it wasn’t just about the weekend ticket sales. The whole week was a lucrative one for Hollywood, with most schools still out.

The most sustained success over the holiday collider in theatres belonged to a movie that opened all the way back in November. Yet Disney’s Zootopia 2 has had remarkable staying power. It landed in second place with $19 million, dipping a mere four per cent from the previous weekend.

The animated sequel has amassed $1.59 billion in six weeks. That makes Zootopia 2 Disney’s second-highest grossing animated movie ever, trailing only 2019’s photorealistic ‘The Lion King’ ($1.66 billion).

The Housemaid, the twisty thriller starring Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried, also emerged as a holiday-season hit for Lionsgate. It collected $14.9 million over the weekend, giving it $75.7 million domestically over three weeks. It dipped only three per cent from last weekend. Internationally, the film, which cost a modest $35 million to make, has added $57.3 million.

Just as Sweeney’s star power is propelling The Housemaid, so is Chalamet’s with Marty Supreme. The A24 release also held well in its third weekend, grossing an estimated $12.6 million. After two weeks of wide release, Josh Safdie’s frenetic table tennis tale has grossed $56 million in North America, passing the director’s previous film, Uncut Gems ($50 million worldwide).

Just about everything playing in theatres saw small drops from the previous weekend. Sony’s action comedy Anaconda, starring Jack Black and Paul Rudd, dipped 31 per cent to collect $10 million in second weekend. Focus Features’ Song Sung Blue dropped only 17 per cent in its second weekend with $5.9 million. The Hugh Jackman-Kate Hudson Neil Diamond cover band movie has earned $25 million domestically.

With Avatar: Fire and Ash and a wide variety of smaller hits, Hollywood started 2026 strongly. Overall sales were up 26.5 per cent from the same weekend in 2025, according to data firm Comscore.

The movie industry is coming off a poor 2025, where domestic movie-going continued to slide. US and Canada ticket sales in 2025 amounted to $8.9 billion, a two-per-cent increase from the year earlier, according to Comscore, but about 20 per cent below pre-pandemic levels. That slight improvement was notably less than anticipated and was also boosted by higher ticket prices. Actual tickets sold declined from more than 800 million in 2024 to about 780 million in 2025.

The industry is now awaiting a potentially seismic shift with Warner Bros., one of the most theatrical-friendly studios, agreeing to sell to Netflix. That $83-billion deal awaits regulatory approval.

Yet studios are cautiously optimistic 2026 could be the best box-office year of the decade. A release slate filled with marquee franchises, including new Toy Story, Avengers, Spider-Man, Super Mario Bros and Dune movies, has raised hopes of a turnaround.

Top 10 movies by domestic box office

With final domestic figures being released Monday, this list factors in the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at US and Canadian theatres, according to Comscore:

1. Avatar: Fire and Ash, $40 million.

2. Zootopia 2, $19 million.

3. The Housemaid, $14.9 million.

4. Marty Supreme, $12.6 million.

5. Anaconda, $10 million.

6. The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants, $8.2 million.

7. David, $8 million.

8. Song Sung Blue, $5.9 million.

9. Wicked: For Good, $3.3 million.

10. Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, $2.7 million.