“Avatar: Fire and Ash” opened with $88 million this weekend to lead all films in North America, according to industry estimates released Sunday.
The third film in director James Cameron’s science fiction series, which uses cutting-edge motion-capture technology to tell the story of the fictional Na’vi tribe, has a long way to go to match the historic box-office performance of its predecessors. The original “Avatar,” released in 2009, remains the highest grossing film of all time with over $2.9 billion in worldwide box office receipts. The first sequel, 2022’s “Avatar: The Way of Water,” is third all-time with over $2.3 billion.
Second place went to “David,” Angel Studios’ animated faith-based telling of the Old Testament story, which opened with $22 million, Comscore reported.
“The Housemaid,” a horror thriller starring Amanda Seyfried and Sydney Sweeney, opened with $19 million.
“SpongeBob Movie: Search for Squarepants” opened with $16 million, followed by “Zootopia 2,” which made another $14.5 million Friday through Sunday in its fourth weekend in theaters.
Rounding out the top 10 domestic releases were “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” ($7.2 million), “Wicked: For Good” ($4.3 million), “Dhurandhar” ($2.47 million), “Marty Supreme” ($875,000) and “Hamnet” ($850,000).
This weekend’s overall three-day box office haul was estimated at $178.7 million. The year-to-date total is $8.352 billion — up 1% from the figure at this time last year, according to Comscore.