The 2026 film that surpassed Avatar: Fire and Ash at the box office in its sixth weekend was Mercy.
Avatar: Fire and Ash opened in the United States on December 19, 2025, and held the domestic weekend top spot for five consecutive weekends. Its run included weekend grosses of $89.2 million, $63.1 million, $41.4 million, $21.5 million, and $14.5 million.
Mercy, a science-fiction thriller directed by Timur Bekmambetov and starring Chris Pratt and Rebecca Ferguson, opened on January 23, 2026. Its debut ended Avatar: Fire and Ash's five-week reign at number one. Box-office wording can cause confusion here: saying Mercy dethroned Avatar in its sixth weekend means Avatar had already led for five weekends, not that Avatar won a sixth weekend.
The result was notable because Avatar: Fire and Ash remained a major theatrical attraction despite the change at the top. The film ultimately grossed about $1.49 billion worldwide, while Mercy's domestic opening was affected by a major January winter storm that closed hundreds of theaters.