James Cameron's fantasy threequel finally fell to No. 2 after six weeks of release, but now boasts nearly $1.4 billion in worldwide earnings. Mercy topples Avatar's weekslong reign at meager endofJanuary U.S. box office James Cameron's fantasy threequel finally fell to No. 2 after six weeks of release, but now boasts nearly $1.4 billion in worldwide earnings. By Ryan Coleman :maxbytes(150000):stripicc()/RyanColemanauthorphoto0081ce8f0254478080f35972c433877b.jpg) Ryan Coleman Ryan Coleman is a news writer for with previous work in MUBI Notebook, Slant, and the LA Review of Books.

James Cameron's fantasy threequel finally fell to No. 2 after six weeks of release, but now boasts nearly $1.4 billion in worldwide earnings.

*Mercy *topples Avatar's weeks-long reign at meager end-of-January U.S. box office

James Cameron's fantasy threequel finally fell to No. 2 after six weeks of release, but now boasts nearly $1.4 billion in worldwide earnings.

By Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman is a news writer for with previous work in MUBI Notebook, Slant, and the LA Review of Books.

EW's editorial guidelines

January 25, 2026 5:45 p.m. ET

Chris Pratt in 'Mercy'; Oona Chaplin in 'Avatar: Fire and Ash'. Credit:

20th Century Studios;Courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios

*Avatar: Fire and Ash*'s seemingly indomitable reign at the domestic box office has finally come to an end. But the weekend's numbers show that it isn't because of this new contender's strength, but rather *Fire and Ash*'s weakness.

Chris Pratt and Rebecca Ferguson's dystopic thriller *Mercy *finally became the title to topple James Cameron's fantasy threequel* *from the No. 1 spot, after several stepped up and tried over the past six weeks. *Mercy *scored the No. 1 spot on the domestic charts this weekend with a $11.2 million opening figure, easily outpacing *Fire and Ash*'s $7 million week-six take, per Comscore.

*Avatar *still held on to No. 1 globally, however, with a $35 million take, while *Mercy *came in at No. 4 with $22.8 million.

After nearly two months of gangbusters business at the box office, driven by the premieres of some of 2025's highest-earning films, from *Wicked: For Good *to *Zootopia 2 *to *Five Nights at Freddy's 2*, this weekend's cumulative top 10 domestic gross of just over $44 million represents a marked slump. Compare that figure to the weekend beginning with *Fire and Ash*'s Dec. 19 premiere, in which the top 10 cumulative exceeded $175 million.

Still from 'Zootopia 2'.

*Mercy*'s $11.2 domestic premiere, meanwhile, doesn't instill confidence that the film will recoup its estimated $60 million budget by the end of its theatrical run. In other words, *Fire and Ash *lost its foothold atop the box office not because a powerful opponent challenged the film and won, but because it had so weakened after six weeks in release that a meager $7 million take would have been enough for almost any new release to vault over.

That isn't to say *Fire and Ash*'s box office performance has been weak overall. The film has grossed $378.4 million domestically and nearly $1.4 billion abroad so far, placing it within the upper echelons of the highest-grossing films released last year. But as discussed in last week's box office report, *Fire and Ash *is significantly underperforming compared with its predecessors, 2009's *Avatar *and 2022's *Avatar: The Way of Water*.****

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The rest of the weekend's box office leaderboards are mixed bags, comprised of new arthouse titles, blockbuster holdovers from 2025, re-releases, and more.

In the No. 3 spot domestically is *Zootopia 2*, which earned $5.7 million in its ninth week of release for a domestic total so far of $401.4 million. Globally, the film earned another $25.7 million, adding up to a staggering $1.7 billion abroad.

Oscar hopefuls *Marty Supreme *and *Hamnet *have shown remarkable box office staying power in their sixth and ninth weeks of release, respectively. The ping-pong drama from Josh Safdie grossed $3.5 million this weekend for an impressive domestic total of $85.2 over its estimated $70 million budget. The Shakespearean romance from past Oscar winner Chloe Zhao, meanwhile, earned another $2 million, bringing its total to $17.6 million on an estimated $30–35 million budget.

***Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates, and what to watch with our EW Dispatch newsletter.***

Due to *Mercy*'s lackluster debut, next week's slate of releases is poised to generate a new box office champ.

The prime contender is Sam Raimi's highly anticipated return to the horror genre with *Send Help*. The Rachel McAdams and Dylan O'Brien-starring thriller about a couple of sparring coworkers stranded on a remote island has the power to become 2026's first big horror hit. But it'll have to go through the Jason Statham actioner *Shelter *and the post-apocalyptic Mark Fischbach chiller *Iron Lung *first.

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Published: January 27, 2026 at 10:38AM on Source: RED MAG

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