Earlier this year, Avengers: Endgame surpassed Avatar to become the highest-grossing film in history at the box office with a total of $2.79 billion compared to Avatar’s $2.789 billion during the week of San Diego Comic-Con.
However, in a recent interview with Deadline, Cameron claimed he wasn’t sour when he heard the news – in fact, his first reaction was a sense of relief and optimism.
“It gives me a lot of hope,” Cameron said. “Avengers: Endgame is demonstrable proof that people will still go to movie theatres. The thing that scared me most about making Avatar 2 and Avatar 3 was that the market might have shifted so much that it simply was no longer possible to get people that excited about going and sitting in a dark room with a bunch of strangers to watch something.”
“Will Avatar 2 and 3 be able to create that kind of success in the zeitgeist? Who knows. We’re trying. Maybe we do, maybe we don’t, but the point is, it’s still possible,” Cameron continued. “I’m happy to see it, as opposed to an alternate scenario where, with the rapid availability, custom-designed experience that everybody can create for themselves with streaming services and all the different platforms, that [theatrical potential] might not have existed anymore.”
After Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox, Avatar 2 is set to land in theatres on 17th December 2021, with Avatar 3 arriving on 22nd December 2023. A fourth and a fifth Avatar films are currently scheduled for 2024 and 2027 respectively.
Do you think the Avatar franchise could challenge Endgame for the top spot again with its upcoming sequels? Let us know in the comments below or tweet us @flickeringmyth…
Originally published September 12, 2019. Updated March 22, 2020.
