Director James Cameron's Avatar: Fire and Ash has been having an unsteady time in theaters worldwide for over two months. The movie hasn't performed at the level of its two record-breaking predecessors, which remained dominant at the box office for much longer. Avatar: Fire and Ash, on the other hand, has practically reached the end of the line. The trouble is that it seems to be running out of steam just shy of passing two major box office milestones. The movie cost a reported $400 million to produce and likely millions more to market; it had an estimated break-even point of approximately $800 million to $1 billion. While it has been able to meet these benchmarks, it still trails the first Avatar film by around $1.5 billion, and the second by $800 million. This has made the franchise's future uncertain, with Cameron having said that the planned sequels would need much smaller budgets to have a chance of being made.