Billie Eilish may have just made one of the most surprising Avatar rankings yet — and she did it right in front of James Cameron himself. While discussing their recent collaboration on Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour in 3D, Eilish reportedly revealed that Avatar: Fire and Ash is her favorite film in the Avatar franchise.

“I’m absolutely obsessed with Fire and Ash,” Eilish said without hesitation when asked to rank her favorite Avatar movie, leaving Cameron visibly amused during the exchange with Rotten Tomatoes.

The pick instantly stood out for one reason. Despite being Cameron’s latest and arguably most ambitious chapter in Pandora so far, Fire and Ash currently holds the weakest Rotten Tomatoes score of the trilogy. The film presently sits at 66% on Rotten Tomatoes, compared to 81% for 2009’s Avatar and 76% for The Way of Water.

The conversation came as Eilish and Cameron continued promoting Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour in 3D, a large-scale concert film the pair co-directed after Cameron reportedly pitched the idea directly to Eilish’s mother, Maggie Baird. Filmed across four Manchester performances in 2025, the project reportedly involved extensive post-production collaboration between the two, with Cameron describing long editing sessions where he began understanding Eilish’s close emotional relationship with her audience.

But Billie Eilish’s surprising Avatar choice may also reflect the increasingly divided response surrounding Cameron’s latest visit to Pandora.

Why did Avatar: Fire and Ash became the trilogy’s weakest-rated film?

While Avatar: Fire and Ash still earned respectable audience scores, a solid 7.3 IMDb rating and a major commercial success with an estimated budget of $350–$400 million, the film has grossed over $1.46 billion worldwide as of April 2026, according to Box Office Mojo, making it the third-highest-grossing film of 2025 and comfortably pushing past its reported break-even point.

The critics appeared more divided this time around. Some reviewers praised Cameron’s technical ambition and scale, while others felt the third film lacked the same sense of novelty and emotional impact that made the first two installments feel groundbreaking.

At the same time, the lower critics' score hardly means the film failed to connect with everyone. Eilish’s endorsement alone shows how personal franchise rankings can become, especially with a filmmaker like Cameron, whose films often land differently depending on what viewers emotionally connect with.

For some fans, Fire and Ash may simply be the chapter where Pandora finally feels the most mature and emotionally layered — even if critics did not universally agree.

Do you agree with Billie Eilish, or does another Avatar film still rank higher for you? Let us know in the comments.

Written by

Aarav Poonia

Edited by

Itti Mahajan