Avatar: The Way of Water close to breaking even, James Cameron moving forward with sequels

A couple months ago, James Cameron told GQ magazine that Avatar: The Way of Water (read our review HERE) might be the worst business case in movie history because, “You have to be the third or fourth highest-grossing film in history. That’s your threshold. That’s your break even.” That means the movie would have to make somewhere in the range of $2 billion. And while it was always guaranteed that Avatar 3 will be receiving a theatrical release on December 20, 2024, the fates of Avatar 4 and Avatar 5 – which have been scheduled for release on December 18, 2026 and December 22, 2028, respectively – depended on Avatar: The Way of Water breaking even. If it failed, the fourth and fifth movies would be scrapped. But it’s not failing. It has already broken onto the list of the top 10 highest-grossing films in history, and has earned $1.5 billion at the worldwide box office in less than a month. So now Cameron has accepted the fact that he is going to be making Avatar 4 and Avatar 5.

During an interview on Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace? (as reported by Variety), Cameron said, “It looks like with the momentum that the film has now that we’ll easily pass our break even in the next few days, so it looks like I can’t wiggle out of this and I’m gonna have to do these other sequels. I know what I’m going to be doing the next six or seven years. … The point is we’re going to be okay. I’m sure that we’ll have a discussion soon with with the top folks at Disney about the game plan going forward for Avatar 3, which is already in the can – we’ve already captured and photographed the whole film so we’re in extended post-production to do all that CG magic. And then Avatar 4 and 5 are both written. We even have some of 4 in the can. We’ve begun a franchise at this point. We’ve begun a saga that can now play out over multiple films.“

If things keep going this well as the franchise continues, we might even get Avatar 6 and 7.

What we know about the future sequels so far is that Avatar 3 will introduce villainous Na’vi known as the Ash People, Avatar 4 will “go nuts in a good way“, and Avatar 5 will involve a journey to Earth.

Are you glad to hear James Cameron is going to have the chance to make the additional Avatar sequels he’s been wanting to make? Share your thoughts on this franchise by leaving a comment below.