The third Avatar instalment has dominated global box offices despite James Cameron’s warnings the franchise might be cut short if the newest film was not a commercial success.

Avatar: Fire and Ash opened to US$345 million (NZ$599.85m ), US$257m of which was made outside the US, Deadline reported.

Starring Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver and Zoe Saldana, the epic saga follows the interactions between the native inhabitants of the fictitious planet Pandora and their human visitors.

ComScore head of marketplace trends Paul Dergarabedian told CNN the film was expected to continue to draw audiences during the Christmas period.

“As an international, especially 3D, phenomenon and in Imax and the other premium formats, highest-grossing is an event movie.”

The first Avatar, released in 2009, became the highest-grossing movie of all time and netted an Oscar for the flick’s impressive visual effects.

Filmed in Aotearoa as part of a 2013 deal between the Government, Lightstorm Entertainment and 20th Century Fox, the franchise has contributed a whopping $1.1 billion to the local economy.

Director James Cameron became a New Zealand citizen in August, having lived here “on and off” since 2011, before he moved formally to the Wairarapa with his wife and three children.

He attended the film’s premiere last week at Wellington’s Embassy Theatre, where he spoke to the Herald about the future of the franchise.

Director James Cameron on the red carpet at the Avatar: Fire and Ash premiere at the Embassy Theatre in Wellington. Photo / Annaleise Shortland

The fourth and fifth volumes of the story are set to be released on December 21, 2029, and December 19, 2031, with principal photography beginning during filming of the previous two films.

However, Cameron said the sequels would be made only if Fire and Ash was a box office success.

“I can’t even tell you that there will be another Avatar film. That business model itself may have collapsed," he said.

“Everybody’s belt-tightening right now. Because the theatrical marketplace has reduced by about a third, that’s a big deal. So, big films like Avatar aren’t getting greenlit.”

The Oscar winner said he was excited for New Zealanders to see the locally produced film, praising the 3000-plus people who worked on it.

“We’re not just the capital of the country, we’re the film capital of the country for sure. Not to put down Auckland at all or some of the other places, but you know, we’ve got all the people from Wētā here, Wētā Workshop, Wētā FX and all the tradespeople, all the crew people who have worked on these films. We do the live action here and we also do the VFX [visual effects] here.”