‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’ Doubles the Global Box Office Gross of Matt Damon’s Career-Defining Sci-Fi Blockbuster

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Rahul Malhotra is a Weekend News Writer for Collider. From Francois Ozon to David Fincher, he'll watch anything once.

He has been writing for Collider for over two years, and has covered everything from Marvel to the Oscars, and Marvel at the Oscars. He also writes obsessively about the box office, charting the many hits and misses that are released weekly, and how their commercial performance shapes public perception. In his time at Collider, he has also helped drive diversity by writing stories about the multiple Indian film industries, with a goal to introduce audiences to a whole new world of cinema.

Swing and a miss > measured victory. Also, #JusticeForHan. (He/Him).

Director James Cameron and star Matt Damon have a history. Damon has claimed on more than one occasion that he was offered the lead role in Cameron's Avatar, which went on to become the highest-grossing film in history. The star said that he probably turned down hundreds of millions of dollars, assuming he'd have struck one of his typical backend deals. However, in the lead-up to the release of Avatar: Fire and Ash, Cameron clarified that Damon wasn't officially offered the role at all. It ultimately went to Sam Worthington, who has now played the character of Jake Sully in three blockbuster movies. In its fourth weekend of release, Avatar 3 hit the $1.2 billion mark at the global box office, and, in doing so, doubled the lifetime haul of Damon's biggest hit as a leading man, The Martian.

Avatar 3 is still trailing both its predecessors by a wide margin, but such is the level of this franchise's success that it's already among the 30 highest-grossing films ever made. Released in 2009, the first Avatar went on to gross $2.9 billion at the global box office, including revenue from re-releases. The film's sequel, Avatar: The Way of Water, was released over a decade later, amid intense skepticism. It ended up grossing $2.3 billion globally and is now the third-biggest film in history. Cameron's Titanic is the fourth-highest-grossing film of all time, with a global haul of $2.2 billion. This makes him the only filmmaker to have directed three movies with over $2 billion in the bank, and four movies in a row that have made more than $1 billion each.

'The Martian' Will Likely be Overtaken this Summer by 'The Odyssey'

It's difficult to say whether Damon's involvement would've made any difference to the franchise, but it certainly did to The Martian, which grossed around $630 million globally in 2015, and earned seven Oscar nods. The blockbuster sci-fi movie was directed by Ridley Scott and remains one of the most rewatchable hits of the last decade. However, it probably won't remain Damon's top-grossing movie as a leading man for much longer; this summer, Damon will headline Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey, which is being touted to be his biggest project yet. Nolan and Damon previously worked together on the sci-fi epic Interstellar and the period drama Oppenheimer. Cameron still hasn't clarified whether he'll return to direct more Avatar movies, although he'd initially announced plans for two more installments.

You can watch Avatar 3 in theaters, and stay tuned to Collider for more updates.