'Avatar: Fire and Ash' Conquers Disney's $14B Crown-Jewel Franchise Sequel at the Box Office

James Cameron's Avatar: Fire and Ash reached a box office milestone that, while falling short of its predecessors, still outmuscles one of Disney's most lucrative sequels. The third trip to Pandora crossed $1,462,610,357 worldwide, enough to surpass Frozen 2, which finished its theatrical run at $1,453,683,476. That roughly $9 million margin separates the two films, but the significance of who got beaten matters more than the gap itself.

The Frozen franchise is a crown jewel for Disney, one of its most profitable properties, with internal estimates suggesting it has generated roughly $14 billion across multiple revenue streams. Avatar: Fire and Ash surpassing this lucrative franchise's sequel illustrates how much of a money-making machine Avatar is for the House of Mouse.

The Frozen franchise's total revenue figure of approximately $14 billion comes from four major streams. The two films combined earned $2,720,906,734 worldwide. Home release sales added $502,897,133. Theatrical productions contributed $155,193,554. And merchandise, the franchise's true engine, generated an estimated $10.588 billion between 2014 and 2018 alone.

That merchandise figure, covering just four years at the height of the Frozen cultural wave, is the reason the franchise sits in its own tier. In 2014, the year after the original film's release, Disney Consumer Products reported a 22% rise in revenue, with Frozen merchandise cited as the primary driver. During the company's earnings call that same year, Frozen was mentioned 24 times, more than Star Wars, the Avengers, Cinderella, and Spider-Man combined. Disney's stock jumped 8% the following day.

In March 2024, Disney made the franchise's dominance official. In a shareholder presentation, the company revealed that Frozen generated a 9.9x return on investment (ROI), the highest of any franchise in its portfolio. For context, Toy Story produced a 5.5x ROI. The Avengers, one of the most successful film franchises in Hollywood history, generated a 3.3x ROI. Star Wars came in at 2.9x. Disney built those numbers into a shareholder presentation specifically because the Frozen number was that striking. In a company full of billion-dollar franchises, Frozen is the best investment they have ever made.

Avatar: Fire and Ash Still Impresses Despite Falling Short of Its Predecessors

Released on December 19, 2025, Avatar: Fire and Ash was always expected to last rather than explode. That is the Avatar formula, both predecessors launched with comparatively modest opening weekends and grew into their massive totals through sustained audience interest. The original Avatar opened to $77 million domestically and became the highest-grossing film of all time at $2.92 billion. The Way of Water opened to $134 million domestically and finished at $2.34 billion.

Fire and Ash opened to $89.2 million domestically, below its predecessors but in line with Cameron's established pattern. Internationally, it was the story. The film opened to $257 million overseas in its first weekend, marking the second-largest MPA international opening of 2025 behind only Zootopia 2. By its second weekend, the worldwide total stood at $760.4 million.

The film's final domestic tally was $397,232,969. International audiences contributed $1,065,377,388, bringing the worldwide total to $1,462,610,357. That number is enough to clear Frozen 2's final gross by nearly $9 million. The three Avatar films have now grossed more than $6 billion worldwide. 

Avatar 3, however, enters the record books as the lowest-grossing film in the Avatar series, a label that is easier to carry when the franchise's first two entries set the baseline at $2.34 billion and $2.92 billion. Surpassing a franchise sequel like Frozen puts into context how well Avatar 3 has done despite the dent in its armor.