Avatar: Fire and Ash has the potential to surpᴀss many famous film series at the box office in 2025, which could be a huge embarrᴀssment to long-established franchises. In just two films, James Cameron’s Avatar series has already become one of the most lucrative movie franchises ever conceived, making a whopping cumulative $5.24 billion.

If the upcoming Avatar: Fire and Ash follows the financial precedent set by the first two films, the completed initial trilogy can beat multiple established properties. The original Avatar remains the highest-grossing movie of all time with $2.9 billion, and its sequel, The Way of Water, is at no. 3 with $2.3 billion.

Many already ᴀssume Fire and Ash will follow in these footsteps and earn $2 billion, and there’s even reason to believe it could go bigger now that the gap between installments is far shorter. This major upset could be a harsh reality for several franchises who have had far more time and greater volumes of movies to achieve the same goals.

7

Despicable Me

Current Total: $5.6 Billion Over 6 Movies

One of the most wildly successful film franchises of all time, the Despicable Me films have quietly become the biggest fully-animated box office winners in history. This success can mostly be attributed to the pop culture dominance of the Minions, who have practically become the animated mascots of the 2010s and beyond.

It’s honestly astonishing that small yellow creatures babbling nonsense words have created as much wealth for Illumination Entertainment as they have, but Despicable Me‘s cumulative gross isn’t that far off from Avatar‘s. Fire and Ash would need to earn a mere $400 million in order to surpᴀss the animated franchise, and there’s little question that it will do just that and more.

For Despicable Me, losing its spot as one of the most commercially successful film series to Avatar: Fire and Ash wouldn’t be that embarrᴀssing; in fact, it’s downright expected.

6

Peter Jackson’s Middle-Earth

Current Total: $5.9 Billion Over 6 Movies

A тιтanic icon of fantasy filmmaking that, in all honestly, paved the way for Avatar to succeed, Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings movies are box office powerhouses for good reason. However, it wasn’t until the more divisive Hobbit trilogy was released that the Tolkien franchise as a whole was able to breach the $5 billion mark in theaters.

It isn’t all that embarrᴀssing for James Cameron to lap them in only half as many movies. The Lord of the Rings movies were largely released during a different moviegoing era, and they found immense critical acclaim. In fact, 2003’s Return of the King shares the record for the most Oscars won by a single movie with Ben-Hur and Cameron’s own тιтanic.

In other words, The Lord of the Rings has already accomplished a lot and cemented its place in movie history. Compared to other franchises with sprawling numbers of spin-offs, the two Tolkien trilogies can escape the battle for pop culture supremacy with their pride mostly intact.

5

Jurᴀssic Park

Current Total: $6.8 Billion Over 7 Movies

When it comes to the box office, the Jurᴀssic Park movies are no joke, with the requel revival Jurᴀssic World earning a coveted spot among the top ten highest-grossing movies ever made. Indeed, the sci-fi series has been legendary ever since Stephen Spielberg’s original classic, but its spot in the movie franchise food chain is already threatened by Cameron.

With seven full theatrical releases as of Jurᴀssic World Rebirth, which is still playing in theaters, the prehistoric adventure films are still far from extinct. That being said, their less-than-stellar critical consensus means it isn’t shocking they’ll be surpᴀssed by Avatar in only three movies. The franchise is still formidable, considering it earned over $6 billion globally with no recognizable I.P. to begin with.

4

Transformers

Current Total: $5.4 Billion Over 9 Movies

One long-running film franchise the Avatar duology has already nearly surpᴀssed is the Transformers movie series. The robots in disguise have been a significant force at the box office, especially overseas, across multiple distinct eras, from the original ’80s movies to Michael Bay’s reign in the late aughts onwards.

Sadly, the latest all-animated take on the Transformers, Transformers One, was a mᴀssive box office flop, despite being the franchise’s best critically-received entry in years. Boasting nine individual movies, it’d be quite an embarrᴀssing upset to see Cameron overtake the Transformers’ cumulative box office earnings with three times fewer films.

3

Fast & Furious

Current Total: $7.2 Billion Over 11 Movies

Few movie тιтles have spawned series as sprawling as the Fast & Furious movies, starring Vin Diesel’s Dominic Toretto. Going from a relatively grounded crime series to a high-flying, explosive tentpole action franchise with unbelievable stunts, it’s not hard to see how the continued success of the films has changed their scope and ambitions.

With ten feature films and one spin-off set in the same universe, the Fast & Furious series has become an undisputed box office champion with over $7 billion worldwide. However, if Avatar: Fire and Ash follows its predecessors and earns over $2 billion, Cameron’s series will soar past Diesel’s.

It’s almost laughable that the Avatar movies have already gained as much distance on Fast & Furious as they have. Fast & Furious even had the potential to put more space between them with the release of the eleventh main movie, but production has unfortunately been stalled for some time. It likely won’t be able to catch up with Avatar.

2

The Fox X-Men Series

Current Total: $6.1 Billion Over 13 Movies

A rare completed franchise going up against Avatar, the modern dominance of the superhero movie owes a lot to Fox’s original X-Men series. The rights may have reverted back to Marvel Studios now, but Fox had an impressive run piloting the beloved comic book mutants. At the same time, it was also a run that occasionally saw diminishing returns.

Having somewhere between 13 and 14 films depending on whether or not the MCU-affiliated ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool & Wolverine can be counted, the Fox X-Men have a significant lead on James Cameron’s sci-fi saga, with a total gross of over $6 billion (excluding D&W). Avatar: Fire and Ash propelling the franchise past X-Men would be an unbelievable upset, considering the prominence X-Men once held and the number of movies it produced.

1

The DCEU

Current Total: $7.2 Billion Over 15 Movies

Now officially finished in the wake of the DC Studios takeover, the former DC Extended Universe has left behind an uneven legacy. While the critical consensus was very mixed, often skewing more negative, the fact is that the DCEU films made well over $7 billion across 15 movies.

Yet if Avatar: Fire and Ash makes close to what The Way of Water did, Cameron’s sci-fi epic will have no problem beating the DCEU. Several DCEU installments underperformed when they were released, which is one of the reasons why Warner Bros. is now revamping the property with the DC Universe.

Still, considering how the DCEU had Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman on its side, its performance is unquestionably disappointing. If Avatar: Fire and Ash actually surpᴀssed a long-running film series with five times as many movies at the box office, it would be a monumental embarrᴀssment that could never be lived down.