'Avatar: Fire and Ash' reaches $1 billion in global ticket sales

James Cameron's science-fiction fantasy 'Avatar: Fire and Ash' has surpassed $1 ‌billion in global box office proceeds, the director's fourth film to cross that threshold.
The film, which returned audiences to the visually stunning planet of Pandora, has brought in $1.03 billion in worldwide ticket sales, Walt Disney Studios said ​on Sunday. 'Fire and Ash' is the third movie ‌in the 'Avatar' series, which has earned a combined $6.35 billion globally. The movie picks up where the second film, 'Avatar: The Way of Water', left ‌off — with characters Jake (Sam Worthington) and ‍Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) mourning the ‌loss of a son.
'These movies consistently draw ‍audiences to the movie theatre', said Paul Dergarabedian, Comscore head of marketplace trends, who noted that the visually stunning ⁠3D films are 'tailor made' for watching in theatres. The first film in the franchise, 'Avatar”, which opened in 2009 and brought in $2.9 billion in ticket sales worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing movie ever in absolute ⁠dollars, according to Comscore, although it's behind the 1939 ⁠classic 'Gone With the Wind' if box office returns are adjusted for ⁠inflation ‍and average ‌ticket prices over the decades.
Thirteen years later, in 2022, 'Avatar: The Way of Water” opened, grossed more than $2.3 billion globally and won an Oscar for best achievement ‌in visual effects.
The latest instalment, released in time for the holiday season, racked up $306 million in the US and Canada; and $777.1 million internationally, Disney reported.
Cameron's first billion-dollar blockbuster was 'Titanic', released in 1997, which has brought in nearly $2.3 billion, worldwide. — Reuters