Box Office: ‘Avatar 3’ Flies Past $1 Billion, Sleeper Hit ‘Housemaid’ Delivers Sydney Sweeney Needed Win

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 billion mark at the global box office Saturday. Disney and 20th Century waited to announce the milestone on Sunday, once they’d confirmed the full-weekend estimates coming in from around the globe. It’s another notch in the belt for Cameron, who has already directed three of the four biggest movies of all time at the global box office, led by Avatar and Marvel’s Avengers: Endgame, followed by Avatar: The Way of Water and Titanic.

Avatar 3‘s global earnings through Sunday were an estimated $1.083 billion, including $771.1 million overseas after earning another $129.6 million. In North America, it finished the weekend with a domestic total of $303 million after earning a better-than-expected $40 million.

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 — including Lilo & Stitch ($1.038 billion) and the record-smashing Zootopia 2, which has now grossed north of $1.558 billion globally.

And it’s still going strong. Zootopia 2 is expected to fall a scant 7 percent in its sixth outing, to come in second with $18 million or more from 3,285 cinemas. Nor is it slowing down. 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, but it isn’t the only Christmas-to-New Year’s victor.

Lionsgate and Paul Feig’s well-reviewed sleeper hit The Housemaid is on course to fall a scant 3 percent 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, 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 the actress.

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 standout. It was the biggest surprise of Christmas weekend in placing second with $27.1 million. The pic’s Friday-to-Sunday haul of $17.5 million was the second-best showing in the history of A24. And it is showing promise overseas, where it has earned $8.8 million so far from only four markets, including $4 million from this weekend.

Marty Supreme is headed for a fourth-place finish domestically with an estimated $12 million from 2,887 cinemas. It continues to outpace Sony’s Anaconda, a comedic action-adventure teaming Jack Black and Paul Rudd.

Anaconda, rebuffed by many critics, rounded out the top five this weekend with an estimated $10 million for a North American cume of $45.6 million and $88 million globally against a modest $45 million budget. But Sony move chief Tom Rothman is never to be underestimated.

Paramount and Nickelodeon’s animated movie adaptation, SpongeBob: The Search for SquarePants, finished its first week with $56 million. The film franchise was championed by former Paramount chief Brian Robbins, who also doubled as president of Nickelodeon, 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 Ann Naito departed as Paramount’s president of animation.)

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 10th place if it can’t get much past $2.7 million.

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.
Jan 5, 12:15 p.m.: Updated with certain foreign grosses.

This story was originally published Jan. 3.