Avatar creator James Cameron has said he’ll hold a press conference and tell the world what he would have done with Avatar 4 and 5 if he doesn’t get the chance to make the movies.
Or, the legendary writer and director has said, he’ll write Avatar novels himself, although he doesn’t think there’s a business case for books anymore.
Avatar: Fire and Ash is now up to $760.4 million at the global box office as the Disney sci-fi sequel heads towards one billion dollars from theaters. While that’s a huge amount for any movie after just two weekends in theaters, questions remain over whether Avatar 3 will end up making enough money theatrically to convince Disney to greenlight Avatar 4 and 5.
The special effects-heavy Avatar films cost a huge amount of money to produce, but they have historically made billions of dollars at the box office. Avatar 1 remains the highest-grossing movie of all time (not adjusted for inflation), and has earned a staggering $2.9 billion across several theatrical runs. Avatar: The Way of Water earned $2.3 billion, meanwhile, cementing it as the third-highest grossing film of all time — just ahead of Cameron's own Titanic.
Avatar 4 currently has a December 21, 2029 release date, with Avatar 5 due out December 19, 2031. Cameron, now 71, would be close to 80 years old by the time it all wraps up.
Now, speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Cameron sounded further words of caution about continuing the franchise, despite the fact Disney has set release dates for Avatar 4 and 5. And he revealed his plan if Fire and Ash flops — in Disney’s eyes, of course.
"If we don't get to make 4 and 5, for whatever reason, I'll hold a press conference and I'll tell you what we were gonna do. How's that?" he said.
An alternative is to write Avatar novels, going into significant detail on the world and telling the stories of the sequels. "There's so much culture and backstory and lateral detail in these characters that's been worked out,” he said. “I'd love to do something that's at that level of granular detail."
However, “there's no business model for it anymore. People aren't reading. But anyway, it might be good to have the canonical record of what it was all supposed to be.”
According to EW, that’s a reference to recent research from the University of Florida and University College London that states the proportion of people reading for pleasure daily in the United States has declined by more than 40% over the last 20 years.
These comments from Cameron echo those he made in the run up to Fire and Ash’s release, when he admitted he was feeling nervous about the film’s box office performance and expressed concern about the “forces” working against theatrical releases in 2025.
Speaking on The Town with Matthew Belloni podcast, Cameron said there’s potential for “sequelitis.” He added: "people tend to dismiss sequels unless it’s the third Lord of the Rings film and you want to see what happens to everybody, which in my mind this is — this is the culmination of a story arc, but that may not be how the public sees it.” And there’s the “one-two punch” of streaming and Covid, which means fewer people are going to the movies — 75% of the number in 2019, Cameron suggested.
When pressed on how much Avatar: Fire and Ash cost to make, Cameron wouldn’t be drawn into divulging a figure, only suggesting it was a lot of money, and so the movie will have to make a lot of money to turn a profit.
“It is one metric f**k ton of money, which means we have to make two metric f**k tons of money to make a profit,” he said. “I have no doubt in my mind that this movie will make money. The question is, does it make enough money to justify doing it again?”
And on that point, Cameron admitted he was “absolutely” ready to walk away from Avatar if Fire and Ash flops.
“I’ve been in Avatar land for 20 years,” he said. “Actually 30 years because I wrote it in ‘95, but I wasn’t working continuously on it for those first 10 years. Yeah, absolutely, sure. If this is where it ends, cool.”
But what about open story threads?
“There’s one open thread. I’ll write a book!” Cameron responded.
Photo by Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images for 20th Century Studios.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
