‘Avatar: Fire And Ash’ hits $760m at global box office after strong hold; Italy’s ‘Buen Camino’ delivers Christmas smash

Worldwide box office: December 26-28

Credit: Comscore. All figures are estimates.

‘Avatar: Fire And Ash’ in powerful second session

The Avatar franchise has traditionally showed strong traction in the marketplace with relatively slim week-to-week box office declines – but it was not a given that third entry Avatar: Fire And Ash would perform like its predecessors. Might the box office numbers melt away after the initial wave of franchise fans had come out to see the film?

So far, Disney can take encouragement: Fire And Ash declined a mild 28% at the North American box office in its second weekend of play, with a 25% drop for international, and just 15% at international markets excluding China.

With an estimated $245.2m globally for the film’s second weekend, the total after two sessions is $760.4m – the fifth-biggest tally for a US studio film released in 2025.

The weekend saw Fire And Ash overtake the worldwide lifetime totals of 2025 hits such as Mission: Impossible The Final Reckoning ($599m), Superman ($617m), F1: The Movie ($632m) and How To Train Your Dragon ($636m).

Fire And Ash is already the top US studio title of 2025 in Germany (with an estimated $43.1m), and the second-biggest in China, France, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and Thailand.

Among international markets, China leads with $99.6m, ahead of France ($54.4m), Germany, South Korea ($32.1m), UK/Ireland ($27.6m) and Mexico ($22.3m).

The film remains powerful in premium formats, and the Imax total is now $96m – on target to become the company’s biggest US studio release of 2025.

Despite the success so far, Fire And Ash will need to continue along a sustained path of strong performances to have any hope of matching 2022’s Avatar: The Way Of Water, which has a worldwide lifetime total of $2.34bn. The original Avatar remains the highest-grossing film of all time, with $2.92m globally.

Also for Disney, Zootopia 2 (aka Zootropolis 2) achieved another strong hold, boosted by Christmas in North America, where weekend box office for the film rose 35% on the previous session. International saw a 15% drop on the previous weekend, and a 1% drop if China is excluded. Global total after five weeks of play is now $1.42bn – the biggest US studio film of 2025 and behind only Chinese animation Ne Zha 2 in the year’s global ranking.

‘Buen Camino’ is smash hit in Italy

Italian comic actor Checco Zalone brought cheer to his home country’s cinemas at the weekend with the numbers for his latest comedy, Buen Camino. Opening on Christmas Day with a reported €5.9m ($6.9m), the film has an estimated four-day (December 25-28) debut of $29.3m – the biggest ever opening for a film in Italy.

Zalone previously had the distinction of starring in Italy’s four biggest local box office hits: Quo Vado? ($72.6m, 2016), Solo A Catinelle ($69.9m, 2013), Tolo Tolo ($52.2m, 2020) and What A Beautiful Day ($59.4m, 2011). Buen Camino will quickly overtake 2023’s There’s Still Tomorrow ($40.6m) to become the fifth-biggest local hit in Italy – giving Zalone a clean sweep of the top five local films.

Bari-born Zalone is an actor, screenwriter, producer and director as well as comedian and singer. He co-wrote Buen Camino with the film’s director Gennaro Nunziante – the same creative partnership that delivered Quo Vado?, Solo A Catinelle and What A Beautiful Day. (Zalone directed Tolo Tolo himself, co-writing with Paolo Virzi.)

‘Anaconda’ delivers $44m opening

Cinema audiences looking for a live-action comedy over the Christmas period found their needs met by Columbia Pictures’ Anaconda, starring Jack Black and Paul Rudd. Sony should be happy with the opening numbers: an estimated four-day $23.7m in North America and $20.0m across 58 international markets. Global opening is an estimated $43.7m.

Australia leads international markets with a powerful $2.4m, ahead of Mexico ($2.1m), UK/Ireland ($1.7m), Germany ($1.2m) and Brazil ($1.0m).

A number of key markets have yet to open, notably France, Italy, China, Japan and South Korea.

Anaconda is not a reboot of the original 1997 film. Instead, it’s a comedy about two best friends who head to Brazil’s Amazon rainforest to shoot a low-budget remake of their favourite film… where they are attacked by a giant anaconda. Tom Gormican directs. 

‘Spongebob’ and ‘The Housemaid’ boosted by international expansion

Paramount’s The Spongebob Movie: Search For Squarepants and Lionsgate’s The Housemaid both expanded into international markets at the weekend, also enjoying their second week of play in North America.

Spongebob grossed an estimated $22.1m across 50 international territories, while The Housemaid pulled in an estimated $13.9m across 21 international markets.

Outside North America, the Spongebob sequel performed best in UK/Ireland (an estimated $3.9m including previews), ahead of Mexico ($2.7m), Germany ($2.6m) and France ($1.8m). Next comes Israel ($1.7m) – punching above its weight as a top five international market on the film.

Worldwide totals on the two films are neck and neck with $60.3m for The Spongebob Movie: Search For Squarepants and $60.6m for The Housemaid.

The previous Spongebob film – The Spongebob Movie: Sponge On The Run – achieved negligible box office when finally released into cinemas in March 2021, simultaneous with streaming on the newly launched Paramount+, and on other services. Release had been delayed from summer 2020 by the Covid pandemic.

In 2015, The Spongebob Movie: Sponge Out Of Water grossed $325.2m worldwide. That represented a big advance on its predecessor, the first film in the series, The Spongebob Squarepants Movie, which achieved a $141.1m global total.

Indian epic ‘Dhurandhar’ hits $120m

Indian action epic Dhurandhar is continuing its strong run both in its home market and globally – spending a fourth week in Comscore’s worldwide weekend chart. Estimated worldwide weekend takings of $11.3m take the total to a hefty $120.6m. India represents 78% of the total, with overseas markets including North America delivering 22%. North American release is handled by Moviegoers Entertainment, achieving $16.8m to date.

From Jio Studios and B62 Studios, Dhurandhar is written and directed by Aditya Dhar and stars Ranveer Singh, Akshaye Khanna and Sanjay Dutt.

Dhurandhar is the highest-grossing Indian film of 2025 at the worldwide box office, according to available data – ahead of Chhaava (estimated at $100-105m) and Kantara: Chapter 1 (estimated at $95-100m). A lengthy running time of 214 minutes for Dhurandhar has proved no barrier to audiences.

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