Avatar: Fire and Ash kicked off with a $88 million domestic debut — meaning the blockbuster soared above its rival releases of Sydney Sweeney’s thriller The Housemaid and Angel Studios’ animated musical David, but fell short of its projected $100 million mark.

Fire and Ash” opened with $345 million in worldwide sales, according to studio estimates Sunday, notching the second-best global debut of the year and potentially putting James Cameron on course to set yet more blockbuster records.

The third “Avatar” movie has also grossed over $257 million in international markets, for a combined total of $345 million.

While $88 million would normally be considered a slow start for a movie on the scale of "Fire and Ash," the box-office run for "Avatar" movies tends to be a marathon, not a sprint. The series is known for having significant staying power in theaters for several weeks.

Fire and Ash continued its strong theatrical run through the weekend, delivering steady growth at the Indian box office while posting a massive global opening.

The graph shows that this week Avatar: Fire and Ash hit peak popularity of 100 while the highest that Avengers: Doomsday reached was a meager 10 last week. Since then its popularity has dropped to a level of just six despite a new trailer dropping every week over the next month.

"Pre-Covid, everybody thought the Chinese box office was going to be the savior of Hollywood," one international executive said. "Post-Covid, that has all changed."