After two weeks in theaters, James Cameron‘s “Avatar: The Way Of Water” passed $1.1 billion at the global box office. A strong start, but will it reach Cameron’s desired gross of matching or surpassing the 2009 film’s 2.923 billion gross? Only time will tell. But the future of the “Avatar” franchise hinges on the financial success of “The Way of Water.” If the new sequel fails, Cameron stated that the other “Avatar” sequels he has in development after “Avatar 3” might not move forward.
However, if”The Way Of Water” succeeds at its lofty box office goals, the 68-year-old Cameron may make “Avatar” movies for the rest of his career. And the director is all right with that. Variety reports that during a Q&A with other directors for Empire Magazine, Cameron said Pandora is big enough to encompass all the other stories and technological breakthroughs he’d like to tackle. The “Avatar” franchise isn’t a limitation but a boon, he explained, and it hardly robs him of new creative ideas.
Cameron’s comments came in response to a question from “RRR” director S.S. Rajamouli. “I am sure you will have many more stories/ideas that you want to tell,” Rajamouli asked Cameron. “Do you ever feel bad that you are not able to tell them [because of all the work on “Avatar”]?” To which Cameron responded: “Hi, S.S. Two thoughts in answer to your question: the first is that the world of “Avatar” is so sprawling that I can tell most of the stories I want to tell within it and try many of the stylistic techniques that I hope to explore. And secondly, yes… our time as artists is finite. I will always mourn some of the stories that I don’t get to make.”
Cameron then referenced two past projects he eventually handed over to other directors, “Strange Days” and “Alita: Battle Angel.” “I feel a great satisfaction when other directors want to explore some of my ideas, like Kathryn Bigelow did with “Strange Days,” and Robert Rodriguez did when I passed him the baton on “Alita: Battle Angel,”” Cameron continued. “I look forward to more collaborations in the future with directors I admire.” Cameron had 2019’s “Alita: Battle Angel” in development for quite some time before he gave it over to Rodriguez so he could further develop the “Avatar” sequels. He remained on board creatively as an executive producer for “Alita,” but his choice to leave the project made the “Avatar” sequels his top priority.
Believe it or not, Cameron has other film ideas beyond three more “Avatar” movies. He even mused to Empire earlier this year about the possibility of passing on the franchise to other filmmakers at some point so he could work on a different project altogether. “The “Avatar” films themselves are kind of all-consuming,” Cameron said. “I’ve got some other things I’m developing as well that are exciting. I think eventually over time – I don’t know if that’s after three or after four – I’ll want to pass the baton to a director that I trust to take over, so I can go do some other stuff that I’m also interested in. Or maybe not. I don’t know.”
But all of that depends on how “Avatar: The Way Of Water” continues to do at the box office. Remember, Cameron said that the sequel needs to make as much money as the 2009 original to break even. A likely exaggeration on Cameron’s part, but that means “The Way Of Water” needs to make another ~$2 billion in its theatrical run. Will the film hit the director’s desired target? Never bet against James Cameron…