Fire and Ash’ Sets the Record For the Franchise’s Lowest RT Score

Avatar: Fire and Ash has made both franchise and James Cameron history, but not in the way many were hoping. The third (and possibly final) film in James Cameron’s ambitious saga about the planet Pandora following the Sully family, Avatar: Fire and Ash, is easily one of the most anticipated films of the year. It is such a high-profile film that most people are expected to see that trailers like Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day, Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, and four unique Avengers: Doomsday trailers are expected to be released.

Early screenings for Avatar: Fire and Ash were held at the beginning of December, with the review embargo lifting on Dec. 16, 2025, which was three years to the day Avatar: The Way of Water opened. Where early first responses were positive, the reviews are finally hitting. While still fresh, it is lower than the previous two entries in the Avatar franchise, or any movie James Cameron has directed.

‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’ is the Lowest Rated Entry in the Franchise on Rotten Tomatoes

At the time of this writing, Avatar: Fire and Ash currently has a 71% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 128 reviews, with a Metacritic Score of 61. In contrast, Avatar: The Way of Water has a 76% rating based on 454 reviews and a 67 on Metacritic. The first Avatar in 2009 is the best-reviewed entry in the franchise, with an 81% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 335 reviews, while its Metacritic score is higher at 83.

More reviews for Avatar: Fire and Ash will come out, possibly increasing or decreasing its score. It is still at a fresh rating right now, but if more negative reviews come out, it could slip into the Rotten territory. Avatar: Fire and Ash reviews still lean more positively, and the tomatometer is not always a good judge of nuance, since it can only judge things in strict binaries, while some reviews might be more in the middle. It is worth noting that 71% is my new mean bad. Removed from the school like grading rubric of Rotten Tomatoes, where something below 60 is failing, on average, more critics liked Avatar: Fire and Ash than didn’t.

How will these reviews impact Avatar: Fire and Ash? Not sure. Avatar: The Way of Water‘s initial reviews were more lukewarm than its predecessor’s, but it didn’t stop it from becoming the highest-grossing movie of 2022 or from earning an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture. The Avatar movies might be critic-proof. However, one record Avatar: Fire and Ash set is that it might not have wanted to be the lowest-rated movie on Rotten Tomatoes, directed by James Cameron.

‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’ Becomes James Cameron’s Lowest-Rated Film

20th Century Studios

Here is every film directed by James Cameron, ranked by their Rotten Tomatoes score.

Now there are a few key factors. Much of Cameron’s work is from the 1980s and 1990s, with Rotten Tomatoes mixing in contemporary reviews for films like Aliens and The Terminator alongside those published at the time, which can sometimes inflate the scores of some films and make them appear higher than they were when released. Cameron still does not have a feature film he directed with a “Rotten” tomato score, which is good. Yet Avatar: Fire and Ash unseating The Abyss as James Cameron’s lowest-rated reviewed movie, is not something that he, nor Disney, wanted for the third entry in the billion-dollar franchise.

Release Date

December 19, 2025

Runtime

195 Minutes