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The Na’vi won the battle of the box office this weekend, as “Avatar: Fire and Ash” hauled in a hefty $88 million in the U.S. and Canada during its opening weekend.

The third installment of the Disney-owned 20th Century Studios’ “Avatar” franchise brought in an estimated total of $345 million globally, with about $257 million of that coming from international audiences. The movie reportedly has a budget of at least $350 million.

Box office analysts had expected a big international response to the most recent film, particularly since its predecessor “Avatar: The Way of Water” had strong showings in markets like Germany, France and China.

In China, the film opened to an estimated $57.6 million, marking the second highest 2025 opening for a U.S. film in the country since Disney’s “Zootopia 2” a few weeks ago. (That film went on to gross more than $271.7 million in China on its way to a global box office total of $1.1 billion.)

The strong response in China is another sign that certain movies can still do well in the country, which was once seen as a key force multiplier for big blockbusters and animated family films but has in recent years cooled to American movies due to geopolitics and the rise of its domestic film industry.

Angel Studio’s animated biblical tale “David” came in second at the box office this weekend, with an estimated domestic gross of $22 million. Lionsgate thriller “The Housemaid,” Paramount Animation and Nickelodeon Movies’ “The Spongebob Movie: Search for Squarepants” and “Zootopia 2” rounded out the top five.

The weekend’s haul likely comes as a relief to theater owners, who have weathered a roller coaster year.

After a difficult first three months, the spring brought hits like “A Minecraft Movie” and “Sinners” before the summer ended mostly flat. A sleepy fall brought panic to the exhibition business until closer to the Thanksgiving holiday, when “Wicked: For Good” and “Zootopia 2” drew in audiences.

Miracles do still happen.

Ricki Lake took to Instagram on Monday to share the “craziest” story of how a stranger had found her old family photos “at a freaking flea market.”

“I can’t even process” this, the former talk show host says in the video. “My words are not coming.”

Lake, who lost her Malibu home in the Palisades fire in January, recounted how a couple of her friends had reached out to her Sunday night to let her know that someone had posted images of old photos featuring Lake and her son on social media and was trying to get in touch with her.

“I couldn’t believe what I was seeing because all of it was gone in the fire,” Lake says.

Patty Scanlon, the artist who had posted the images, joined Lake on Instagram Live to share how she stumbled upon the photos while looking for inspiration at the Pasadena City College Flea Market.

“It was like the universe drove me to get your pictures,” Scanlon says, explaining she found a box of photos at the first vendor she hit at the market and bought it for $20. “I opened the pictures and the first one I saw … I thought ‘Oh, I love that woman’s face.’”

The artist didn’t immediately recognize the woman in the photos, but as she looked through more of them she realized it was Lake and her son Milo, who is now 28, as a toddler. In addition to the photos, Scanlon found a letter that indicated Lake had mailed them as a thank-you for some gifts that were given to baby Milo.

“These pictures are so priceless to me,” Lake says. “They would be anyway … but the fact that I lost all of these images in the fire in January … I thought they were gone forever.”

“I had made peace,” she continues. “It was such a heartache and such a painful thing to come to terms with. That all of these memories are no longer in front of me. They’re just in my mind and heart now. But the fact that you found these is unbelievable.”

In the video, Scanlon hypothesizes that the box of photos probably ended up at the flea market after an estate sale and says she can’t believe what a “miracle” it was that she had found them after learning about how Lake had lost everything in the fires.

“I really cannot thank you enough for your generosity,” Lake says to Scanlon. “The fact that I’m going to get something back that I thought was lost forever … it makes me so happy.”

Jewish mothers are proud when their son or daughter become successful in sports, but then there’s the greatest honor of all: their child appearing on a matzah box.

Former Rolling Hills Prep guard Benny Gealer, a senior at Stanford averaging 10.6 points this season, is a candidate for the L’Cheisman trophy, sponsored by Manischewitz looking to honor the top Jewish college sports athletes.

Forget the $10,000 prize money. The most important reward in the mind of his mother is that the winner gets to appear on a limited-edition cover of its matzah box.

So the Gealer family is all in.

Gealer was an All-CIF guard at Rolling Hills Prep who went to Stanford as a walk-on and is now starting.

Here’s the link to vote for your favorite Jewish college sports athlete.

This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.