Against expectations, Disney and 20th Century’s Avatar: Fire and Ash held onto the top spot for a fifth consecutive weekend, edging out Sony’s highly anticipated horror sequel 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple. Heading into the weekend, most projections had Avatar 3 slipping to second place, especially with a new wide release entering the marketplace. Instead, Fire and Ash delivered $13.3 million, narrowly beating The Bone Temple, which opened to $13.0 million.
The victory says as much about the weakness of the January marketplace as it does about the staying power of James Cameron’s franchise. Even with the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday extending the weekend, the overall box office came in at a modest $84.9 million for Friday through Sunday.
That figure was only slightly better than last year’s MLK weekend and underscores how far the holiday has fallen as a reliable box office driver. The encouraging note is that every weekend of 2026 so far has outperformed its comparable frame from 2025, even if the gains remain incremental.
Looking ahead, next weekend is expected to soften further, with Amazon MGM’s sci-fi action film Mercy and Iconic Events’ horror release Return to Silent Hill opening wide. January continues to follow a familiar post-holiday pattern, with each successive weekend trailing the one before it. While the industry is tracking ahead of last year overall, January remains a missed opportunity to meaningfully widen that gap.
The struggles of MLK weekend in particular reflect a broader post-pandemic shift. Prior to COVID, the holiday regularly generated close to $200 million over four days, buoyed by multiple wide releases. In the years since, both total grosses and the number of new openings have fallen sharply.
Studios have largely stopped treating MLK weekend as a premium launch corridor, creating a self-reinforcing cycle of lower expectations and weaker results. Unless distributors recommit to placing higher profile releases on the calendar, the holiday is unlikely to rebound.
Back at the top of the chart, Fire and Ash continues to perform solidly but not at the historic pace of its predecessors. The film opened lower and is dropping faster than either Avatar or The Way of Water, though it remains a blockbuster by any reasonable standard. Cameron acknowledged the softer marketplace this week, noting publicly that future installments may require tighter budgets. With Disney handling distribution and merchandise while Cameron retains ownership, the financial pressure lands more heavily on the filmmaker. Even so, three Avatar films in, the franchise has already rewritten the record books.
Sony’s 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple landed in second place with a solid but muted debut. The film continues the evolution of the long-running franchise, which began as a scrappy post-9/11 indie and has grown into a prestige horror series shaped by social anxiety and political unease. The critical response has been strong, but the January release date and proximity to last summer’s 28 Years Later likely limited its opening upside. With a production budget of $63 million, the sequel faces a narrower margin for profitability than its predecessor.
Disney’s Zootopia 2 finished third in its eighth weekend, adding $8.8 million and pushing its domestic total to $390 million. Globally, the animated sequel has crossed $1.7 billion, making it the highest-grossing title in the history of Walt Disney Animation Studios. The film is on pace to surpass $400 million domestically next weekend, cementing its place among the top animated releases of all time.
In fourth place, Lionsgate’s The Housemaid continued its quietly impressive run, grossing $8.5 million in its fifth weekend. With worldwide grosses of more than $247 million on a $30 million budget, the film has become one of the most profitable releases of the season. A sequel is already in development, with the creative team expected to return.
Rounding out the top five, A24’s Marty Supreme rebounded with $5.5 million following Timothée Chalamet’s Golden Globe win. The film has now earned $79.7 million domestically, making it A24’s highest-grossing release ever in North America. With Oscar nominations looming, the studio is betting the awards conversation will carry the film past $100 million, though its $70 million production cost still looms large.
Two weeks into the year, the domestic box office is running well ahead of the same point in 2025, 2024, and 2023. The challenge now is whether studios can capitalize on that momentum, or whether January will once again settle into a pattern of cautious releases and capped potential.
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Avatar: Fire and Ash holds the top spot at Box Office
