'Avatar: Fire and Ash' dominates box office for fourth week

James Cameron’s Avatar: Fire and Ash topped as highest grossed film after four weeks of its release.

The film Avatar: Fire and Ash has already reached the mark of $1 billion at the global box office.  The film is now aimed to hit $1.5 billion milestone at the global box office.

It will likely conclude its run with a lower haul than either of its predecessors, Avatar and Avatar: The Way of Water, but that isn’t going to stop it from becoming one of the most successful movies in box office history. It’s already among the 30 highest-grossing films of all time, and Cameron’s fourth film in a row to pass the $1 billion mark.

This weekend, Avatar 3 passed the lifetime global box office hauls of a handful of classic blockbusters, including The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, Captain America: Civil War, and the best James Bond film of all, Skyfall. With just under $350 million domestically and around $900 million from international markets, Avatar 3’s global haul now stands at $1.23 billion.

The movie opened to the weakest reviews of the trilogy and more scepticism than Cameron has probably witnessed in his career. The Avatar franchise has always drawn criticism for its perceived lack of cultural impact, and Avatar 3 was no different. Cameron also appeared to walk back his initial enthusiasm for the franchise by suggesting that he might not make any more follow-ups; he’d previously revealed plans for five films in total. With a reported budget of $400 million, Avatar 3 is one of the most expensive movies of all time, but it has already passed its estimated break-even point, which means that it would likely be profitable at this point.

The movie’s $1.23 billion haul puts it ahead of Skyfall, the highest-grossing James Bond movie ever. Skyfall is also arguably the most beloved film of the decades-old franchise. The third to star Daniel Craig as the iconic British spy, Skyfall was directed by Sam Mendes, and featured Javier Bardem as the villain.

It also possessed a “certified fresh” 92% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, where the consensus reads, “Sam Mendes brings Bond surging back with a smart, sexy, riveting action thriller that qualifies as one of the best 007 films to date.”

Craig returned for two more Bond movies, Spectre and No Time to Die, both of which earned inferior reviews by comparison. The search is now on for his replacement, who will debut in a movie directed by Denis Villeneuve and written by Steven Knight.