Avatar fans will be spending a lot more time in the cinema in the next few years as James Cameron reveals the second film is profitable, giving him the go-ahead to make more films.
The visionary director previously said his long-awaited sequel to the hugely successful 2009 epic Avatar would have to make a huge amount of money at the box office to break even.
But now, Cameron has revealed that The Way of Water - which is breaking box office records as we speak - is profitable, leading to more films in the future.
Speaking on this week’s episode of HBO Max’s Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace?, Cameron discussed what's next for his Avatar franchise after the new film crossed $1.5 billion at the global box office on Thursday (5 January), placing it ahead of Top Gun: Maverick to become the highest grossing film released in 2022.
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“It looks like just with the momentum that the film has now that will easily pass our break even in the next few days, so it looks like I can’t wiggle out of this, I’m gonna have to do these other sequels,” he said, referencing the already announced third, fourth and fifth Avatar films.
The 68-year-old said the third film is partially completed and needs 'all that CG magic' before its scheduled release date in December 2024.
Avatar 4 and 5 are both written and parts of the fourth film have also presumably been filmed.
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"I know what I’m going to be doing the next six or seven years," Cameron shared.
"The point is we’re going to be okay. I’m sure that we’ll have a discussion soon with with the top folks at Disney about the game plan going forward for Avatar 3, which is already in the can – we’ve already captured and photographed the whole film so we’re in extended post-production to do all that CG magic.
"And then Avatar 4 and 5 are both written. We even have some of 4 in the can.
"We’ve begun a franchise at this point. We’ve begun a saga that can now play out over multiple films.”
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The Titanic and Terminator director also addressed the moment he seemingly said The Way of Water would have to earn at least $2 billion at the box office to break even and make way for more sequels.
“To clarify, I never actually gave it a number,” Cameron said. “I said it would has to be among the highest-grossing films in history and somebody else applied that number and it got picked up. The number is actually less.”
Although Cameron is remaining tight-lipped about the true cost of the entire Avatar franchise, he did tell GQ that the in order for the film to make a profit and to break even, the movie has to become 'the third or fourth highest-grossing film in history'.
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That would have meant The Way of Water had to make more than $2 billion at the box office.
Even if the figure isn't $2 billion, it'll certainly cost Disney a lot of dosh.
No pressure.
Topics: Film and TV, James Cameron