James Cameron appeared in the latest episode of HBO Max and “Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace?” from CNN. and stated that his second film “Avatar” will “easily” break even in worldwide box office receipts. He said the film’s success means he will in fact make not only “Avatar 3” (which was mostly completed before “The Way of Water” was released last month), but also “Avatar 4” and “Avatar 5.”
“It seems like just with the momentum the movie has right now, it will easily pass our break even in the next few days, so it seems like I can’t get out of this,” Cameron quipped. “I’m going to have to do these other sequels.”
“I know what I’m going to do in the next six or seven years,” the Oscar-winning filmmaker continued. “The point is that we are going to be fine. I’m sure we’ll have a discussion soon with the top people at Disney about the game plan to follow for avatar 3, which is already in the can: We’ve already captured and photographed the entire film, so we’re in extended post-production to do all that CGI magic. And so avatar 4 Y 5 both are written. We even have some of 4 in the boat. We have started a franchise at this point. We have started a saga that can now be developed into multiple films.”
Cameron previously stated that the film had to be one of the highest grossing globally to break even, leading to a media narrative declaring $2 billion worldwide as the tipping point.
“To clarify, I never actually gave him a number,” Cameron said. “I said it would have to be among the highest grossing movies of all time and someone else applied that number and it went up. The number is actually less.”
The director also discussed that image with Wallace, namely that the disaster romance was a metaphor for social indifference to global warming.
“The captain died with a pocket full of ice radio telegram warnings ahead, but they were still sailing full speed because they thought they could get away with it and the unthinkable wouldn’t happen, and it did,” Cameron said. “We live in the 90 seconds between when they saw the iceberg and when they couldn’t turn.”
“Avatar: The Way of Water” is now the ninth highest-grossing film of all time, with more than $1.5 billion so far and a potential worldwide finish of more than $2 billion. With the picture still strong, including a 6.4% increase from its second domestic weekend ($63 million) to its third ($67 million), it’s possible the Sam Worthington/Zoe Saldana-directed fantasy will top $2K. million and perhaps the $2.2 billion. all life (including reissues) of “Titanic”.
Barring a scheduling change, the third “Avatar” film will open on December 20, 2024.
