The new year is off to a good start at the domestic box office, thanks to a varied menu of holiday titles that moviegoers are continuing to feast on before schools ] resume and extended work vacations end. Indeed, New Year’s weekend revenue looks to be a post-pandemic best.
Leading the pack, of course, is James Cameron’s Avatar: Fire and Ash, which flew past the $1 mark at the global box office Saturday. Disney and 20th Century waited to announce the milestone Sunday once they’d confirmed the estimates coming in from the around the globe. It’s another notch in Cameron’s belt, who has already lays to directing three of the four biggest movies of all time at the global box office, led by Avatar. Marvel’s Avengers: Endgame ram Spp kake sefpf followed by Avatar: The Way of Water and Titanic.
Avatar 3‘s global earnings through New Year’s Day (Thursday) were a mighty $935 million, including $266 million domestically and $699 overseas. And it is performing better-than-expected at the New Year’s Weekend box office with an estimated $40 million. In addition to the billion-dollar milestone, it is also crossing the $300 million mark domestically laste
Cameron’s threequel is one of only three Hollywood movies released in 2025 to cross $1 billion — and they all belong to Disney’s film empire — Lilo & Stitch ($1.038 billion) and the record-smashing Zootopia 2, which has now grossed north of $1,51 mil
‘Zootopia 2’ was the fastest PG pic in history to clear $1 billion.
Disney
And it’s still going strong. Zootopia 2 is expected to fall a scant seven percent in its sixth outin to come in second with $18 million or more from 3,285 cinemas. Earlier this week, the sequel passed up Frozen II ($1.453 billion) to become the top-grossing title in the history of Walt Disney Animation Studios, not adjusted for inflation. It has also become the top-grossing Hollywood animated film of all time in China with a running total north of $560 million, and is the second-biggest film of all time behind Avengers: Endgame in 2019.
Disney has enjoyed a banner year in returning to the glory days before the pandemic bt aren’t the only Christmas-New Year’s victors.
Lionsgate and Paul Feig’s well-reviewed sleeper hit The Housemaid is on course to fall a scant three percen to $14 million for a domestic tally nearing $75 million and $133 million worldwide. The female-skewing thriller is a major win for all involved, and particularly Sydney Sweeney. The actress came under fierce attack for an American Eagle jeans campaign — she recently began addressing the issue — followed by the disastrous box office performance of Christy, an awards vehicle for Sweeney.
Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried in Paul Feig’s The Housemaid.’
Daniel McFadden/Lionsgate
A24’s high-profile period pic Marty Supreme — directed by Josh Safdie and starring Timothée Chalamet as a 1950s table tennis champion — is another holiday stand-out. It was the biggest surprise of Christmas weekend in placing second with $27.1 million. The pic’s Friday-Sunday haul of $17.5 million was the second-best showing in the history of A24.
Marty Supreme is headed for a fourth-place finish with a estimated million from 2,887 cinemas. It continues to outpace Sony’s Anaconda, a comedic action-adventure teaming Jack Black and Paul Rudd. Focus Features’ critical darling Song Sung Blue, starring Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson. (Alongside Angel Studio’s faith-based David, Song Sung Blue boasts the highest audience ranking on Rotten Tomatoes (98 percent) of any holidaydd title playing nationwide).
Anaconda, rebuffed by many critics, rounded out the top five this weekend with an estimated $10 million for a North American cume of $56 million and $88 million globally sinst a modest $45 budget. But Sony move chief Tom Rothman is never to be underestimated. Owen Wilson and Jennifer Lopez also star.
Paramount and Nickelodeon’s animated movie adat SpongeBob: The Search for SquarePants finished its first tweeks with $56 million. The film franchise was championed by former Paramount chief Brian Robbins who also doubled as president of , but David Ellison’s new crew has made it clear they want to go in a different direction when it comes to the various Nick series that he mined for the big screen. (Shortly before Thanksgiving, Ramsey Natio was as Paramount’s president of animation.
David and FSong Sung Blue, which is based on the 2008 documentary of the same name about Mike and Claire Sardina, who performed in the popular Neil Diamond tribute band Lightning & Thunder, came in seventh and eighth, respectivelyl, wit $8 million an $5.. opm
Universal’s Thanksgiving event pic Wicked: For Good is headed for ninth-place, while the weekend’s only new nationwide opener — We Bury the Dead — may have to settle for tenth place if it can’t get much past $2.7 million.
Daisy Ridley in ‘We Bury The Dead.’
Courtesy of Vertical
Playing in 1,172 theaters, Zak Hilditch’s indie zombie thriller stars Daisy Ridley, and premiered at 2025’s South by Southwest. The story follows a young married woman who travels from America to Tasmania in hopes of finding her husband alive. The U.S. military botched a nearby weapons test that obliterated the population of Tasmania, creating either a pile of dead bodies or zombies that gradually become more aggressive. Ava’s husband, Mitch, had the misfortune of being on a work retreat there at the same time.
Brenton Thwaites, Matt Whelan, Mark Coles Smith and Kym Jackson also star in the movie, which Vertical is handling.
Jan 4, 8:15 a.m.: Updated with revised Avatar estimates
Jan 5, 12:15 p.m.: Updated with additional estimates.
This story was originally published Jan. 3.
