World
Box Office: ‘Avatar 3’ Leads in First Weekend of 2026 With $40 Million, ‘The Housemaid’ Surpasses $75 Million
“Avatar: Fire and Ash” is towering over the domestic box office during the first weekend of the new year.
James Cameron’s latest Na’vi adventure has collected $40 million from 3,825 North American theaters in its third weekend of release, declining 35% from the busy post-Christmas frame. Those ticket sales are pushing the third “Avatar” to $306 million domestically and $1.08 billion globally after just 18 days in theaters. “Fire and Ash” crossed the coveted billion-dollar benchmark slower than 2022’s “Avatar: The Way of Water,” which took 14 days, and the original “Avatar,” which took 17 days. Now it’s a matter of where “Avatar: Fire and Ash” will top out at the box office — and whether the third installment has the stamina to surpass $2 billion like its predecessors.
Since January is often glacial in terms of movie theater attendance, Hollywood studios barely release anything new around the dawn of the new year. That means a smattering of Thanksgiving and Christmas leftovers, such as “Zootopia 2,” “The Housemaid” and “Marty Supreme,” were behind “Avatar: Fire and Ash” on North American charts.
Disney’s “Zootopia 2” remained a force at No. 2 with $19 million from 3,285 venues, marking a minimal 4% drop from the previous weekend. After six weekends of release, the beloved animated sequel has grossed a mighty $363 million domestically and $1.588 billion globally. “Zootopia 2” recently outperformed “Frozen 2” ($1.45 billion) to become Walt Disney Animation’s highest-grossing movie of all time. That means the announcement of a third trip to the animal-filled metropolis can’t be too far off.
Lionsgate’s psychological thriller “The Housemaid” rose to No. 3 with $15.2 million from 3,070 screens, a barely-there 1% dip from the prior weekend. The R-rated film, starring Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried, has earned an impressive $75.7 million in North America and $133 million worldwide against a $35 million budget.
Fourth place went to A24’s “Marty Supreme” with $12.5 million from 2,887 locations, declining just 30% from the post-Christmas frame. So far, the Timothee Chalamet-led ping-pong dramedy has generated $56 million in North America, a great result for the original arthouse release. With those ticket sales, “Marty Supreme” has outgrossed the director Josh Safdie’s prior film “Uncut Gems” ($50 million globally) and ranks among A24’s biggest movies of all time. However, “Marty Supreme” cost $70 million to produce, making it the most expensive film to date for A24. It’ll need to remain a draw into the new year to justify its budget.
Sony’s action comedy “Anaconda” remained in fifth place with $10 million from 3,509 theaters, a drop of 31% from the prior weekend. After two weekends of release, the meta reboot of 1997’s “Anaconda, this one starring Jack Black and Paul Rudd, has grossed $45.8 million in North America and $88 million globally against a $45 million production budget.
Another Christmas release, the Focus Features musical drama “Song Sung Blue,” slid to the No. 8 spot with $5.87 million from 2,705 venues, a scant 17% drop. So far, the tear-jerker, led by Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson as performers in a Neil Diamond cover band, has grossed $25 million domestically and $30 million worldwide against a $30 million budget.
Although the year is very young, 2026 is already pacing ahead of 2025 by 26.5%, according to Comscore. Last year’s revenues hit $8.9 billion across 12 months, a modest 1.5% increase from 2024, though just short of the $9 billion that analysts had expected the industry to generate. As studios prepare to unveil major blockbusters — including “Avengers: Doomsday,” “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” and “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” — will this year’s grosses manage to return to pre-pandemic heights?
“With a killer slate on the docket, there’s confidence that 2026 will be the biggest year for theaters since 2020,” predicts Comscore’s head of marketplace trends, Paul Dergarabedian.
Now, Hollywood just needs audiences to show up at multiplexes.
World
Secret Service Agent Assigned to Jill Biden Shoots Self in Leg
A U.S. Secret Service agent assigned to former First Lady Jill Biden accidentally shot himself in the leg early on Friday near Philadelphia International Airport, according to a source familiar with the incident.
In a statement that did not mention Biden, the Secret Service said the incident occurred just after 8:30 a.m. EST and the agent suffered a non-life-threatening injury.
“There was no impact to the protectee’s movement and they were not present at the time of the incident,” the statement said.
The agent “accidentally discharged his firearm” while traveling in an unmarked SUV near the airport, Philadelphia Police Department Cpl. Jasmine Colón-Reilly said in a statement.
Emergency medical personnel responded to the scene and the agent was transported to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center in stable condition, Colón-Reilly said.
“The Secret Service’s Office of Professional Responsibility will be reviewing the facts and circumstances of this incident,” the Secret Service said.
The Secret Service is responsible for providing security to current and former presidents, vice presidents and their families and foreign leaders and is also an investigative agency.
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(Reporting by Christian Martinez in Los Angeles; editing by Scott Malone and Chris Reese)
World
Body found in search for missing American Airlines flight attendant in Colombia: mayor
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A mayor in Colombia announced that a corpse had been discovered and was likely that of an American citizen who had gone missing.
Eric Fernando Gutierrez Molina, a 32-year-old American Airlines flight attendant from Texas, had gone missing while in the foreign country, according to reports.
“Since last Sunday, we have been searching for Eric Gutiérrez, a U.S. citizen who is missing,” Medellín Mayor Federico Gutiérrez noted in a Friday post on X, according to a translation from Spanish.
AMERICAN AIRLINES FLIGHT ATTENDANT VANISHES DURING COLOMBIA LAYOVER: ‘HIS FAMILY IS DESPERATE’
Medellin Mayor Federico Gutierrez speaks during a press conference on Dec. 19, 2025. (JAIME SALDARRIAGA / AFP via Getty Images)
“Unfortunately, a lifeless body has just been found between the municipality of Jericó and Puente Iglesias,” he noted.
“There is a very high probability that it is this person,” the mayor explained.
COLOMBIAN MILITARY PLANE CRASH KILLS AT LEAST 66, HEAD OF ARMED FORCES SAYS
Eric Fernando Gutierrez Molina (CDColExt/X)
“We are heartbroken by the tragic passing of our colleague,” American Airlines noted in a statement provided to Fox News Digital on Saturday.
‘AMERICAS COUNTER CARTEL COALITION’: INSIDE THE US STRATEGY TO COMBAT NARCO TERROR, CONFRONT CHINA, OTHER FOES
An American Airlines Airbus A321 departs from Harry Reid International Airport on March 11, 2026, in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Kevin Carter/Getty Images)
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“Our thoughts and support are with his family, loved ones and colleagues during this difficult time, and we are doing all we can to assist Colombian law enforcement in its investigation,” the company added.
Fox News Digital’s Alexandra Koch contributed to this report
World
Hundreds of thousands march through London in stand against the far right
London, United Kingdom – Hundreds of thousands of people have marched through central London in what organisers are calling the largest ever demonstration against the far right in British history.
The Together Alliance march, backed by about 500 groups including trade unions, antiracism campaigners and Muslim representative bodies, brought together a diverse crowd of all ages from across the country on Saturday, converging on Whitehall near the Houses of Parliament.
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Organisers said that half a million people took part.
Kevin Courtney, chairman of the Together Alliance, told crowds the march “gives us all confidence to carry on.”
London’s Metropolitan Police put the figure considerably lower, at approximately 50,000, though officers acknowledged it was difficult to reach an accurate figure given how spread out the crowds were.
The protest was met with a far smaller group of counterprotesters waving Israeli flags and Iran’s pre-1979 monarchical flag.
Aadam Muuse, a trade union activist, told Al Jazeera that racism and Islamophobia had moved from the fringes into mainstream politics, and was “being pushed by parliamentarians”.
He said the march was “much needed to push back against [Reform leader Nigel] Farage and his ilk,” adding that the populist party “must be defeated at the ballot box”.
Al Jazeera’s Milena Veselinovic, reporting from the march, said demonstrators were pushing back against what they saw as “the politics of hate and division” in the United Kingdom.
One demonstrator, activist and writer Hamja Ahsan, told Al Jazeera he was motivated to attend after a rally organised by the far-right agitator-activist Tommy Robinson that drew 150,000 people and was marred by violence that injured several police officers. Robinson is reportedly planning another rally in May.
“We need to show them that we’re the majority,” Ahsan said. “At a street level, the far right won’t take over our streets.”
He said the atmosphere on Saturday was akin to the Notting Hill Carnival, as the march united people from all backgrounds, “from pensioners to children”.
Museum worker Charlotte Elliston told Al Jazeera that she also feels unsettled by the far right’s creeping rise.
“You think this would never happen here, and then all of a sudden this might happen,” she said. “You see that it is getting scary.”
Several left-wing politicians joined the demonstration.
Independent MP Jeremy Corbyn posted on X that the “problems we face are not caused by migrants or refugees”, arguing they were rooted instead in “an economic system rigged in favour of corporations and billionaires”.
MP Zarah Sultana said on X, “There’s one minority we should be angry at: the billionaires funding division while working class people can’t make ends meet.”
Green Party leader Zack Polanski, Dianne Abbott and Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham were also among the crowds.
‘Historic demonstration’
The rights group Amnesty UK hailed the “historic demonstration”, saying marchers were “calling for a different vision of society – one which places dignity, compassion and human rights at its heart”.
A separate march organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, which assembled at Exhibition Road near Hyde Park, converged with the main demonstration during the afternoon.
Eighteen people were arrested outside New Scotland Yard on Saturday after staging a protest in support of Palestine Action, the protest group which remains proscribed under the Terrorism Act despite a High Court ruling in February that the government’s decision to ban it was unlawful.
The march comes amid rising racism as Farage’s Reform party surges in the polls.
Hope Not Hate, an antiracism campaign group, warned earlier in March that the British far right is now “bigger, bolder and more extreme than ever before”.
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