Over the weekend, developments for Avatar: Fire and Ash gained some traction in India. The movie has sold 140K tickets for the entire weekend and 55K tickets for its opening day at the two major chains as of this morning. Overall, pre-sales for the movie brought in nearly Rs. 4 crore on its opening day and Rs. 10 crore over the weekend.
Although the film has somewhat bridged the gap, sales are much lower than those of Avatar: The Way of Water at the same period prior to release. toward national chains, it was about 30% of Avatar 2 on Friday and closer to 40% toward the conclusion of the weekend. The movie is currently on track to reach 200K final sales, compared to Avatar 2’s 330K final total.
This deficiency in comparison to Avatar 2 is consistent with global trends. The explanation is simple: this is the second Avatar movie in three years, whereas Avatar 2 was the much anticipated follow-up to the world’s largest box office hit. This time, there isn’t the pent-up need for an Avatar movie that gave Avatar 2 a significant early demand advantage.
As was also the case with Avatar 2, sales are highest in South India. Sales are being led by the states of Telugu and Tamil Nadu, which were the top two areas for Avatar 2. North India might be a little behind at first, but it should catch up in the run-up to and after the release.
Dhurandhar, which continues to dominate the show-casing in its third week, is predicted to present a significant challenge to the movie in Northern circuits due to its continuous box office chaos. It’s interesting to note that this is a turnaround from 2022, when Ranveer Singh’s movie Cirkus was overshadowed by Avatar 2.
