James Cameron's AVATAR was a box-office giant, going on to gross $2.78 billion worldwide, a record which would stand for ten years until AVENGERS: ENDGAME took the crown earlier this year with $2.97 billion. That's quite a lot of cash, but James Cameron recently told USA Today that he believes the upcoming AVATAR sequel will be able to top the Marvel epic.
I think it’s a certainty. But let’s give 'Endgame' their moment and let’s celebrate that people are going to the movie theater.
The AVATAR director added that he saw the success of AVENGERS: ENDGAME as a really good sign. "I was really concerned with all the new streaming services and the different ways people can consume movies right now that the theatergoing experience might have been eroded to the point that a new 'Avatar' film – even if it were better than the first one, and better received – could never achieve the same box-office levels. Now at least we know such a thing is still possible at the movie theater," Cameron explained. "This gives me heart to go forward." That said, James Cameron is clearly eager to take back the box-office crown. "I don’t want to sound snarky after I took the high road (by offering congratulations)," Cameron said. "But they beat us by one quarter of a percent. I did the math in my head while driving in this morning. I think accountants call that a rounding error." Ooooooh, damn. Those are some fighting words.
The four, yep, four, AVATAR sequels will be bringing us back to the world of Pandora, with the first sequel set to open two years from now. While speaking with Variety, Cameron gave a brief overview of where they're at in the process.
From 2013 until now we’ve mostly designed the whole world across four new movies. We’ve written, finished scripts for all four of those films. We’ve cast them, and we’ve [performance] captured movie 2, movie 3, and the first part of movie 4. We’re mostly done with the live action. I’ve got a couple months in New Zealand in spring, so we’re kind of on track with what we set out to do. People don’t really understand the scope and complexity of the process. It’s like making two and a half big animated films. A typical big animated film takes about four years, so, if you do the math on that, we’re kind of right on schedule for December 2021.
The AVATAR sequels are slated to hit theaters on December 17, 2021, December 22, 2023, December 19, 2025, and December 17, 2027. Do you think they'll have what it takes to reclaim the box-office crown from AVENGERS: ENDGAME?