Back in 2009, James Cameron’s “Avatar” became a box-office juggernaut the likes of which weren’t replicated until two decades later when Marvel Studios’ “Avengers: Endgame” briefly overtook it.
The current global box-office climate is still seemingly years away, if ever, from offering another potential multi-billion-dollar hit. So Cameron, who has spent years working on the four planned sequels to his original feature, tells EW that he’s understandably concerned about the film’s potential theatrical box office chances.
All four sequels were written simultaneously and had their scripts completed before they moved forward with filming. Taking such a big swing risk was only possible because the first film was such a smash hit:
“It sounds kind of nuts, the process. I mean, if ‘Avatar’ hadn’t made so much damn money, we’d never do this – because it’s kind of crazy.
The big issue is: Are we going to make any damn money? Big, expensive films have got to make a lot of money. We’re in a new world post-COVID, post-streaming. Maybe those [box office] numbers will never be seen again. Who knows? It’s all a big roll of the dice.”
Indeed, as “West Side Story” showed – even a film sold on a big name director like Steven Spielberg can’t lure audiences in if there isn’t a genuine interest in the material.
For now, the first of the “Avatar” sequels is still on track to be released in one year’s time – on December 16th 2022. Whether audiences will come out for it as they did for the first? It’s not clear.