‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’ Reduces Matt Damon’s Sci-Fi Masterpiece to Rubble at the Box Office

Director James Cameron recently debunked star Matt Damon‘s claims that he turned down an offer to star in the first Avatar, which would’ve made him hundreds of millions of dollars. Cameron said that no offer was formally made to Damon, who said that he had prior commitments to the Jason Bourne franchise. Cameron also made it clear that Damon assumed he’d make his regular backend points on the movie, which wouldn’t have happened had he actually been cast. Either way, only a few years after Avatar emerged as the highest-grossing film of all time, Damon delivered his own sci-fi hit; the biggest blockbuster of his career as a leading man, The Martian. And now, Avatar: Fire and Ash is battling The Martian at the domestic box office. The third installment in Cameron’s landmark franchise has been doing phenomenally well so far, and is set to deliver an impressive hold in its second weekend of release.

Avatar 3 has already passed the $170 million mark, and if it meets its $60 million projection for the weekend, it should pass the $210 million milestone by Sunday. The Martian, directed by Ridley Scott, concluded its run with a little more than $200 million in 2015. Scott and Cameron also have a history, of course; Cameron directed the blockbuster film Aliens, which served as a sequel to Scott’s Alien. Over the years, both filmmakers have taken different approaches in their respective careers, with Cameron preferring to take years between projects, and Scott sometimes directing more than one project in the same year. Avatar 3 has huge shoes to fill, seeing as its two predecessors — Avatar and Avatar: The Way of Water — are the first and third-highest-grossing movies in history.

‘Avatar 3’ Isn’t As Well-Received As ‘The Martian’

Unlike those films, however, the third installment opened to slightly muted reviews. It seems to have settled at a 66% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, where the critics’ consensus reads, “Remaining on the cutting edge of visual effects, Fire and Ash repeats the narrative beats of its predecessors to frustrating effect, but its grand spectacle continues to stoke one-of-a-kind thrills.” This doesn’t seem to be affecting its performance, as it tracks ahead of Avatar 2. The Martian, on the other hand, was a critical darling. It earned seven nods at the Oscars, including in the Best Picture and Best Actor categories, and currently holds a 91% score on RT. You can watch The Martian at home, and Avatar 3 in theaters. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.