'Avatar' Crashes Out At Box Office, Signaling More Trouble For Disney, Hollywood

The entertainment industry is in serious trouble, especially with domestic audiences. 

It's no secret that the movie business has been in a losing streak, as tentpole franchise films bomb at the box office. While everyone's been affected, perhaps no studio has been more affected than the dominant superpower in Hollywood, The Walt Disney Company. Disney's animation division has struggled, after decades of consistent success. Marvel Studios, which reliably churned out hit after hit for well over a decade, has seen most of its recent projects fail.

"The Marvels," for example, was a historic box office disaster. "The Fantastic Four: First Steps" earlier in 2025 had solid reviews and a unique premise, yet ticket sales were still disappointing. Many of the issues Disney, Marvel, and the industry at large face are of their own making. 

While entertainment has for years been left-leaning, it's become a factory of progressive ideology over the past 10 to 15 years. Injecting divisive politics into every aspect of films, shows, and public remarks has, unsurprisingly, turned off tens of millions of potential customers. Many of which will never return. 

Warning bells have been sounding all over Los Angeles in 2025. But one film releasing this month was supposed to provide even a temporary respite for the box office blues, particularly for Disney: James Cameron's "Avatar: Fire and Ash."

James Cameron's second film in the "Avatar" series, "The Way of Water," was a massive box office hit. In December 2022, it opened to over $134 million domestically, despite going up against the 2022 World Cup. It just kept going over the holidays, eventually topping out at nearly $685 million in US box office alone. Well, we have the opening weekend grosses for "Fire and Ash" and they are, to put it charitably, not good.

James Cameron poses for the European premiere of "Avatar: Fire and Ash" at the Seine Musicale concert hall in Boulogne-Billancourt, on the outskirts of Paris on December 5, 2025. (Photo by Bertrand GUAY / AFP via Getty Images)

‘Avatar’ Box Office Issues A Huge Problem For Entertainment Business

It's almost a running joke at this point that "Avatar" makes billions at the box office without creating a single culturally relevant talking point, memorable character or line of dialogue. For fun, try to name the protagonist from the original "Avatar," which is the fourth highest grossing film in US history. It's tough.

The opening weekend for "Fire and Ash" though, doesn't exactly bode well for a lengthy box office run. 

Again, "The Way of Water" made roughly $134 million in its domestic opening weekend. "Fire and Ash?" Just $89 million. In real dollars, that's nearly 34 percent lower than its predecessor. Adjusting for inflation though, makes the picture look even worse. Despite releasing in 2022, $134 million in 2022 is about $149 million today. That's the real gap in tickets sold, $149 million to $89 million. Instead of a 34 percent gap, it's over 40 percent. 

That's not good. 

It declined at the international box office too. "Fire and Ash" opened to around $258 million internationally, which is a massive weekend for most movies. But "Way of Water" pulled in roughly $307 million in 2022 dollars. That's $340 million after adjusting for inflation. "Fire and Ash" made $258 million. Again, that's not good.

Many of the excuses the industry uses for the decline in box office in the post-COVID lockdown era is that moviegoers have decided to wait for streaming or they're still somehow scared to go to the movies. But "Way of Water" released in 2022, in the post-lockdown period. And it made a fortune, over $2.3 billion at the global box office. 

"Fire and Ash" will get a boost from the holiday period, and it's almost certainly going to turn a profit and easily clear the billion dollar hurdle. But it's clear that there's simply less interest in this film than there was in the previous one. Franchise fatigue, sequel fatigue, whatever you want to call it, "Avatar" is not the unstoppable force that it appeared to be just a few years ago. And Hollywood, and Disney, need more unstoppable forces. Desperately.

Whatever the reason, Cameron's politics, or the industry's politics, is turning people off. Disinterest in a franchise that's appeared repetitive and derivative. Or high movie theater prices and the further rise of streaming. It's not a good sign for Hollywood. If Hollywood can't count on "Avatar," the list of "bankable" films will continue to shrink. And as always, it's Hollywood's own fault. It has pushed people away and now can't get them back.