Box Office Round-Up ~ 12/22/25

’Twas the weekend before Christmas and all through the theaters, Avatar: Fire and Ash was bringing in audiences and box office receipts as expected. With a domestic gross of $89.1 million, the third in James Cameron’s visually groundbreaking sci-fi saga wasn’t quite on the level of 2022’s Avatar: The Way of Water. While that film benefited from thirteen years of anticipation to gross $134 million in its opening weekend, Fire and Ash arrived a few days closer to Christmas and may very well see big numbers over the coming holiday week to balance everything out. It also has made almost $350 million worldwide, so Disney can already consider it a success.

The rest of the top five was almost all new releases, with Angel Studios’ David taking second place with an impressive $22 million. Paul Feig’s The Housemaid opened with a solid $19 million (Feig’s best opening weekend since Ghostbusters in 2016). The SpongeBob Movie: Search for Squarepants took a chunk out of Zootopia 2’s audience, with the former taking fourth place with $15.6 million while the latter took fifth with $14.5 million for a $282 million domestic total over four weekends.

Also of note outside the top five, Marty Supreme opened on just six screens yet grossed a remarkable $875,000. It expands to wide release on Christmas Day and will hope to carry that momentum to a wider audience. Other notable December 25th releases are Song Sung Blue, starring Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson, as well as the comedic sequel/reboot of Anaconda with Paul Rudd and Jack Black. Awards contender The Testament of Ann Lee, starring Amanda Seyfried, will have its limited release before expanding wide in January.

1. Avatar: Fire and Ash ($89.1 MM)
Director: James Cameron (CAA)
Writers: James Cameron (CAA), Rick Jaffa (WME), Amanda Silver (WME), Josh Friedman (CAA), Shane Salerno (CAA)
Cast: Sam Worthington (WME)
Zoe Saldaña (CAA)
Sigourney Weaver (UTA)

2. David ($22 MM)
Director: Phil Cunningham, Brent Dawes
Writers: Brent Dawes, Kyle Portbury, Sam Wilson
Cast: Brandon Engman (McDonald Selznick Associates)
Phil Wickham (WME)
Asim Chaudhry (MAKE GOOD Content)

3. The Housemaid ($19 MM)
Director: Paul Feig (CAA)
Writers: Rebecca Sonnenshine (UTA)
Cast: Sydney Sweeney (Paradigm)
Amanda Seyfried (Innovative Artists)
Brandon Sklenar (WME)

4. The SpongeBob Movie: Search for Squarepants ($15.6 MM)
Director: Derek Drymon
Writers: Pam Brady (UTA), Matt Lieberman (CAA), Marc Ceccarelli, Kaz
Cast: Tom Kenny (Innovative Artists)
Clancy Brown (CAA)
Rodger Bumpass (WME)

5. Zootopia 2 ($14.5 MM)
Director: Jared Bush
Writers: Jared Bush, Byron Howard
Cast: Ginnifer Goodwin (WME)
Jason Bateman (CAA)
Ke Huy Quan (WME)

Source: Box Office Mojo, The Numbers