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Topics: Film and TV, James Cameron
Jess Hardiman
Topics: Film and TV, James Cameron
Avatar: The Way of Water has become the fifth highest grossing film of all time, having jumped up the all-time global chart.
With Wednesday’s (25 January) worldwide box office grosses included, James Cameron’s big-budget sequel has surpassed $2.054 billion globally, according to Deadline.
This means the film has knocked Avengers: Infinity War ($2.048bn) off the fifth spot – though it still has a long way to go to beat its predecessor, the first Avatar movie, which remains the reigning champion with a gross total of $2.922bn.
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In second place is Avengers: Endgame ($2.797bn), while Cameron’s 1997 epic Titanic follows ($2.201bn).
The next film for The Way of Water to beat is Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens, which sits in fourth place after grossing $2.069bn.
With a budget of around $250bn, Cameron is all too aware of the pressure surrounding his newest Avatar flick.
Speaking to GQ, he said the film was ‘very f**king expensive’ to make, joking that it represents ‘the worst business case in movie history’.
In order for the movie to be profitable, he said, you ‘have to be the third or fourth highest-grossing film in history’.
“That’s your threshold,” the director added.
“That’s your break even."
And, of course, there’s more on the way.
While speaking with Collider recently, Cameron gave an update on the third and fourth instalments also on the way, noting that although studio executives returned with pages of feedback for the second and third movie scripts, they absolutely loved the fourth.
He said: “I can’t tell you the details, but all I can say is that when I turned in the script for two, the studio gave me three pages of notes.
"And when I turned in the script for three, they gave me a page of notes, so I was getting better.
“When I turned in the script for four, the studio executive, creative executive over the films wrote me an email that said, ‘Holy f**k.’ And I said, ‘Well, where are the notes?’ And she said, ‘Those are the notes.’ Because it kind of goes nuts in a good way, right?”
The director also shared that the fourth film will have a big twist, saying audiences would automatically assume they know what the movie is about, and then it heads in another direction entirely.
He added: “I hope I get to make that film, is what I’m saying.”