Avatar’s success is one for the books as the movie has maintained its title for the highest-grossing movie at the worldwide box office. The movie made a not-so-humble $2.789 billion worldwide, briefly getting overtaken by Avengers: Endgame. However, the re-release of the movie resulted in it bouncing back to the top all over again. Now, the franchise is set to break more records with the upcoming sequel, Avatar: The Way of the Water.
While the Avatar franchise is written down to have four sequels, that is a total of five movies, director James Cameron seems to be aware of having to end the franchise just after the third installment. Why? Well when you invest big bucks into a movie, you expect big bucks to return. If the sequels do not turn out to be as profitable as the first movie, the 20th Century Studios might scrap the entire franchise.
Avatar Franchise Might End After Three Movies
If anyone knows how to make movies perform at the box office, it’s director James Cameron. His insanely popular movie, Titanic, which was released in 1997 held the record of the highest-grossing film for a total of twelve years. The record was then broken by Avatar, another movie made by Cameron.
Since Cameron’s work has reached such heights, why doubt it now? Well, the growing preference for streaming movies from the comfort of one’s home, thanks to streaming sites, seems to be one reason. There’s no doubt that theatres are seeing way lesser audiences than before Netflix and its companions became mainstream. Cameron might be worried about The Way of the Water’s future at the box office, solely for this reason.
In the December 2022 issue of Total Film, the Aliens director expressed his worries about the sequel stating that he wasn’t sure how the movie is going to benefit financially.
“The market could be telling us we’re done in three months, or we might be semi-done, meaning, ‘Okay, let’s complete the story within movie three, and not go on endlessly,’ if it’s just not profitable … We’re in a different world now than we were when I wrote this stuff, even. It’s the one-two punch — the pandemic and streaming. Or, conversely, maybe we’ll remind people what going to the theatre is all about. This film definitely does that. The question is, how many people give a s*** now?”
While Cameron is sure about the movie having all the potential to be the next big thing, one thing he is not sure about is whether people care about going to the theatres anymore or not. Avatar’s opening collection was way under the $100 million mark. It was the movie’s ability to bring back viewers to the theatres for a re-watch that helped the movie get into the billion-dollar club. With the growing reliance on streaming sites, will the sequel be able to pull that off?
What to Expect from Avatar: The Way of the Water
The movie brings back the original cast, including Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, and Sigourney Weaver. The Titanic actress Kate Winslet will be the new face seen in the sequel. The movie has already begun to break records before it’s even released with an insane runtime. The sequel is set to have a runtime of 3 hours and 10 minutes, the longest for a widely released theatrical release.
When asked about the length of the movie, Cameron stated that he wants to hear no complaints as people watch T.V. shows for hours on end.
“I don’t want anybody whining about length when they sit and binge-watch for eight hours. It’s like, give me a f*****g break. I’ve watched my kids sit and do five one-hour episodes in a row.”
The sequel will focus on Jake Sully played by Sam Worthington and his life on the planet of Pandora which is under a familiar threat. He will be joined by Neytiri played by Zoe Saldana, to protect the planet.
Avatar: The Way of the Water is set to release on December 16, 2022.
Source: Slash Film
