James Cameron’s Avatar: Fire and Ash soared to number one at China’s box office this past weekend, earning RMB384.1 million, or $51.4 million, over December 19-21 and RMB405.0 million ($57 million) total. This puts the film firmly at the top of the box office, as was expected from the lucrative franchise. Reportedly, about 23% of the gross came from IMAX premium formats. The film has racked up about $345 million worldwide so far.

Zootopia 2 trailed behind with $27 million in its fourth weekend, making it the 2nd at China’s box office. The film has now reached $536.8 million total in China. At the worldwide box office, the animated sequel has climbed up to nearly $1.3 billion, making it the second-highest grossing film of the year as of now. It only trails behind China’s own Ne Zha 2, with $1.9 billion. Between Ne Zha 2, Avatar 3, Zootopia 2 and a variety of smaller films, China’s cumulative box office for 2025 has now reached $7.18 billion. This is a 23.4% increase from last year.

Avatar: Fire and Ash will continue to perform well, especially as it moves into the holiday season. It will have new competition from films such as Marty Supreme, Song Sung Blue and Anaconda, but Avatar fills the void of an all-encompassing adventure with mass appeal. The first two films made $2.9 billion and $2.3 billion respectively, so it will be interesting to see if Fire and Ash can come close to those numbers.