Featured Image Credit: 20th Century Studios
Topics: Film and TV, James Cameron
Gregory Robinson
If you’re planning on going to the cinema to see Avatar: The Way of Water, make sure you have all the Tango Ice Blasts you need because you’ll be sat down for a very long time.
The runtime for the hotly anticipated sequel to James Cameron’s sci-fi epic has been confirmed and it's not for the faint hearted.
While Avatar isn’t a superhero flick, most movies in this genre last somewhere between 120 to 150 minutes.
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Given fans have been waiting since 2009 for a sequel, perhaps Cameron wants to give them everything they’ve been waiting for and more.
The official synopsis for the sequel reads: "Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) have formed a family and are doing everything to stay together.
"However, they must leave their home and explore the regions of Pandora. When an ancient threat resurfaces, Jake must fight a difficult war against the humans."
Avatar: The Way of Water will last for three hours and 10 minutes, or 190 minutes in total, The Hollywood Reporter reports.
A three-hour epic isn’t out of the ordinary for an acclaimed and award-winning director like Cameron, whose romance drama Titanic clocked in at a whopping three hours and 14 minutes.
The first film in the Avatar series – which is set to span across five films – is the highest grossing film of all time at the worldwide box office, with a total gross of $2.92 billion.
That film was around 29 minutes shorter than its sequel, lasting for two hours and 41 minutes.
Films have reportedly gotten longer since the Covid-19 pandemic, with many blockbusters lasting for more than two hours and 30 minutes which is typically considered quite extensive.
Cameron previously encouraged fans to have pee breaks because of the long run time.
"I don't want anybody whining about length when they sit and binge-watch for eight hours [...] I can almost write this part of the review," he said in an interview with Empire.
"'The agonizingly long three-hour movie...' It's like, give me a f*****g break. I've watched my kids sit and do five one-hour episodes in a row."
Cameron unveiled a first look at half a dozen outstanding underwater scenes from The Way of Water back in September.
A remastered version of the 2009 film was released not long after to hype fans up for the upcoming sequel.
The re-release was a big success and grossed $76 million at the global box office, pushing the film’s total gross even closer to the $3 billion mark.
Avatar: The Way of Water will be released 16 December.