James Cameron's *Avatar: Fire and Ash*, the third installment in the epic sci-fi franchise, is making waves in China,
eyeing a massive opening weekend. While the film's $17.2 million opening day fell short of *Avatar: The Way of Water*'s
debut, it did outperform *Jurassic World Dominion* in the region.
Critics have lauded the film's visuals, performances, characters, and action sequences, but some have taken issue with
the plot, screenplay, and runtime. Projections suggest *Avatar 3* may underperform in North America and possibly
struggle to reach $2 billion worldwide.
**China Box Office Numbers**
*Avatar: Fire and Ash* earned a strong $17.2 million on its opening day in China, including $3 million from Wednesday
and Thursday previews across 157,000 screenings. Initial sales were heavily front-loaded, with 58% of Wednesday's
tickets sold that day and the remaining 42% purchased in advance.
According to trade analyst Luiz Fernando, *Avatar 3*'s debut places it as the seventh-largest opening day for a
Hollywood film in China since the pandemic. *Jurassic World Dominion*'s $15.1 million opening was surpassed, but *Avatar
3* still trails *Meg 2: The Trench* ($20.3 million), *Godzilla vs. Kong* ($22.5 million), *Zootopia 2* ($33.9 million),
and *F9* ($58.4 million).
*Avatar: The Way of Water* opened to $23.2 million in China, exceeding *Avatar 3*'s opening day earnings. Furthermore,
audience scores for the new film are slightly lower. On Maoyan, ticket buyers give *Avatar 3* a 9.4 rating (equivalent
to an A CinemaScore), while Douban's audience score is 7.6, compared to *Avatar: The Way of Water*'s 7.8 and the
original *Avatar*'s 8.8. However, word-of-mouth remains generally positive.
Currently, *Avatar 3* is projected to gross between $57 million and $65 million during its opening weekend in China. If
realized, this would be among the biggest opening weekends for Hollywood releases in China post-COVID. As of December
19th, the film had already generated $8.8 million in pre-sales for Saturday and is being shown across 157,000+ screens.
*Note: All box office figures are preliminary estimates based on various sources and have not been independently