‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’ has the antidote for ‘28 Years Later: The Bone Temple’

Hello! Welcome to The Box Office Report for the weekend of Jan. 16-18, 2026.

1. Avatar: Fire and Ash

Weekend gross: $13.3M
Total domestic gross: $363.5M
Last weekend: 1st
Percent drop: 38

This was supposed to be the weekend when Avatar: Fire and Ash slipped from first place, with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple poised to chase off the threequel. Going by Sunday estimates, though, Fire and Ash had just enough oomph (less than half a million bucks worth) to clinch to the No. 1 spot at the box office, finishing with $13.3 million in North America versus $13 million for The Bone Temple.

So, sure, things are going great for the third Avatar movie. It’s consistently moving toward the $400 million domestic mark. But the film is unlikely to follow in the footsteps of its two predecessors and hit the $2 billion worldwide level. The original Avatar (after a few rereleases) sits at $2.934 billion while Avatar: The Way of Water finished at $2.323 billion.

On the weekend-to-weekend comparison, it’s very easy to see how Fire and Ash’s box office power has cratered in the shadow of the first two Avatar movies. Avatar rode a $42.8 million fifth weekend to reach $493.3 million at that point. The Way of Water scored a $32.8 million fifth weekend for a $564.6 million haul through that frame. (Even wilder is that the original Avatar would continue at such a pace during its original release that it would eventually pull away from its successor’s pace.) A $13.3 million fifth weekend just hasn’t been how the Avatar franchise has historically performed.

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2. 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple

Weekend gross: $13M
Total domestic gross: $13M
Last weekend: New release
Percent drop: NA

While 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple has been earning rave reviews, its opening weekend landed behind expectations. Not only did The Bone Temple not manage to dethrone Avatar: Fire and Ash, it fell way behind 28 Years Later’s $30 million debut from last June.

What happened here? Was there just a ton of pent-up demand for a new film in this franchise going into last summer? There was an 18-year gap between 28 Weeks Later and 28 Years Later (and an even bigger 22-year gap between the original 28 Days Later and 28 Years Later) — did that demand dissipate when it came to getting people back into theaters less than a year later for director Nia DaCosta’s sequel?