James Cameron’s Avatar is without a doubt one of the most defining films of the 21st century. It is a film that signaled a seismic shift in the landscape of blockbuster making. It almost single-handedly started the 3D craze that dominated much of the 2010s, and it created a brand new (if not slightly derivative) fantasy world for entertainment fans to embrace and fall in love with. On his release, Avatar was a one-two punch of a story that really resonated with people and really excellent visuals that people had to see to believe. It’s no wonder it became the highest-grossing movie of all time.
But as the years progressed after the release of Avatar, hopes of seeing a sequel to the film began to wane. Despite promises from the studio and James Cameron that more Avatar year after year passed without any tangible developments. Well, after 13 years, the wait is almost over. With the release of Avatar: The way of the water In December, fans will finally be able to return to the world of Pandora and revisit the characters of Jake Sully, Neytiri and the rest of the Na’vi. It’s been a long wait, but there’s a real energy of anticipation in the air regarding The way of the water.
Avatar returns to a very different film landscape from that of the release of the first film. While franchise movie making has long been a dominant force in Hollywood, it is now more so than ever. With major franchises such as the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Star Wars, Game of Thrones, Under the spell of the Ring, and more dominates both large and small screens, the high fantasy and adventure genres are much more competitive these days. However, Avatar is still poised to make a big splash on its second coming. But will it hold the landing and become a true long-term competitor in space?
The success of the first movie
There is a lot of fuss about the success of the original Avatar, but that’s not for lack of reason. Prior to the release of Avatar late 2009 and its long-lasting success, continuing into 2010, the highest-grossing film of all time was another James Cameron-directed classic, Titanic. That seafaring tragic romance grossed more than $1.8 billion in original cinema production in 1997 and 1998; reissues in subsequent years have brought the total to $2.2 billion. While Avatar eventually caught up with and far surpassed the numbers Titanicit took a while for that to happen, and much of that success came from outside the domestic box office.
In the United States, Avatar opened for $77 million, which is a respectable number, but hardly what you’d expect from the highest-grossing movie of all time. For any perspective, Avengers: Endgame opened for over $350 million domestically. What the true miracle of? Avatar‘s box office run came in the weeks that followed. Avatar had a relentless stamina at the box office that hasn’t been seen since. While most movies, especially major blockbusters, drop anywhere from 45-65% on their second weekend, Avatar only a minuscule 2%. It earned an additional $75 million in its second weekend in the US. That little box office drop from week to week would set a pattern for the movie, and it defined Avatar‘s box office domestically. The film’s weekend box office would not fall below 50% of the opening volume until more than a month after the cinema run started.
From there, Avatar‘s success only continued. It became a phenomenon. In the United States, it would not complete its first box office run until August 2010, after 34 weeks and nearly eight months. If you include the special edition reissue, then: Avatar was slated to hit theaters until November. However, most of the money was earned before May. It raised $750 million domestically, making it easily the highest-grossing film of all time in the US and Canada. However, most of Avatar‘s gross came from abroad. It found astronomical success worldwide, bringing in nearly $2 billion and bringing its total theatrical revenue to $2.74 billion. It thoroughly earned the title of the highest-grossing film of all time by a margin of nearly $800 million. It was eventually removed from that throne by… Avengers: Endgame in 2019, bringing in $2.79 billion. However, AvatarThe box office story wasn’t over yet, as a 2021 re-release of the film in China resulted in Avatar reclaiming that number one spot, which it still holds today.
There is still huge interest in the first Avatar movie. It was recently re-released in 3D with a new 4K remaster in the United States and the world. It was the first time Avatar had played in US theaters since 2010, and fans were eager to revisit. With the reissue Avatar grossed over $10 million domestically and $40 million worldwide in its first weekend, strike out don’t worry baby international in its opening weekend. That success was driven both by a desire to experience Avatar back in 3D on the big screen and also pending Avatar: The way of the waterwhich is currently only a few months out.
Sequels in the making
James Cameron wanted to make a sequel to Avatar since before Avatar was released. But there was no official announcement of a second film until after the immense success of the original. Shortly after the release of the first film, there were two follow-ups that glowed green, and initially they were given the December 2014 and December 2015 release dates. Obviously, that didn’t happen. And it’s interesting to consider that Avatar 2 was originally supposed to come out around the same time as In the woods and the last movie in Peter Jackson’s the hobbit trilogy. As time went on, the next two Avatar movies were delayed again and again due to a mix of development issues and Cameron’s decision to completely rework the movies.
The biggest update came in April 2017, when not two but four new ones Avatar sequels got release dates. Avatar 2 and 3 were set for December 2021 and 2022 respectively, with Avatar 4 and 5 to follow in December 2024 and December 2025. In the end, due in part to a global pandemic, the films would eventually be delayed again before finally setting their current release dates. the second movie, Avatar: The way of the waterwill open at the end of this year, on December 16, 2022. Avatar 3 will follow in December 2024, with Avatar 4 in December 2026 and Avatar 5 in December 2028. This decision to extend the films with a two-year hiatus was initially made to allow Disney (which now owns Avatar thanks to their purchase of 20th Century Fox) time to get their Star Wars movies in the holiday seasons every two years, with new releases for 2023, 2025 and 2027. However, with the continued slowdown of Star Wars movies like Rogue Squadronthere is an opening to the release dates of the Avatar sequels, which are already deep in production.
With the incoming four sequels to Avatar, it seems that all of Cameron’s dreams come true. The universe he founded way back in 2009 is finally coming to fruition and developing into a long saga for fans to delve into. The Avatar franchise expands to take on competition from other great fantasy universes such as that of Star Wars, Dune, Under the spell of the Ring, Game of Thrones, and more. It took a long time for Cameron and the creative team behind it Avatar to get their ducks lined up to make it happen, but given the immense anticipation of the second film and the success of the recent reissue, The way of the water seems poised to land with a bang this holiday season.
The James Cameron Factor
The question remains whether Avatar can really become a franchise that rivals that of the MCU and the other major series today. While nothing is set in stone yet, it sure looks good for The way of the water. As the years passed without a Avatar continued, there was a lot of talk about whether people were still interested in the world of Pandora and the Na’vi. With so many blockbuster franchises dominating the multiplex, some argued there wasn’t as much room for Cameron to come in and dominate as he did nearly 13 years ago. People already had and get their sci-fi and fantasy solutions elsewhere through some of the aforementioned franchises.
However, if the last decades of filmmaking in Hollywood have shown anything, there’s no doubting the success and spirit of James Cameron. This is the filmmaker who came out swinging early in his career with classics like the terminator, Aliens, the abyssand Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Then he capped all that with Titanic in 1997. Since then he has directed only a few oceanic documentaries (Ghosts of the Abyss and Aliens of the Deep) in the early 2000s and then Avatar in 2009. He was involved in two major films in 2019, including: Alita: Fight Angelwhich he co-wrote, and Terminator: Dark Fate, which he produced. While both films ended up disappointing, Cameron’s track record is still intact since he passed directing the new one. Terminator and alita movies to focus on being Avatar prosecute.
This is all to say that if anyone can make their way to the top of this current king-of-the-hill franchise war, it will be James Cameron. The world he established in the original Avatar has truly held up as one of the most interesting and developed fantasy worlds of the 21st century. Now he’s spent over a decade figuring out how to expand that world and tell new stories with those characters. The long wait will finally (hopefully) be rewarded in December. A movie doesn’t just accidentally or casually bring in nearly $3 billion worldwide; people love Avatar and they are ready to visit that world again. Of course there is always the possibility that The way of the water is coming out and everyone hates it, but that doesn’t seem likely right now. Fans and regular viewers alike have enjoyed the trailers and the few images of the film that have been released. Although it is impossible to say whether The way of the water will repeat the same alien box office success as the 2009 Avatarit’s not completely out of the question, which in itself is a huge achievement.