James Cameron has revealed that he has an escape route in place if the first part of his Avatar sequels’ master plan turns out to be a bomb this December. Avatar: The Way of Water will arrive in cinemas over 13 years after his original journey to Pandora broke the box office and became the biggest movie of all time. Following up on the movie after so long is always going to come with a risk that people simply won’t be as interested in the franchise as they were, and having three further sequels in various stages of development, that would be a huge problem.

However, Cameron has already prepared for the eventuality that Avatar: The Way of Water fails to bring in audiences by being ready to wrap up the story in Avatar 3 if necessary. The director revealed his thoughts while speaking to Total Film in a recent interview, when he commented:

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“The market could be telling us we’re done in three months, or we might be semi-done, meaning: ‘Okay, let’s complete the story within movie three, and not go on endlessly,’ if it’s just not profitable … We’re in a different world now than we were when I wrote this stuff, even. It’s the one-two punch – the pandemic and streaming. Or, conversely, maybe we’ll remind people what going to the theater is all about. This film definitely does that. The question is: how many people give a s*** now?”

So, Does Anyone Care About Avatar 2?

     20th Century Studios

That is the question that many people asked when James Cameron finally announced that his huge commitment to the Avatar story was finally about to arrive after more than a decade in development. With early projections tracking Avatar: The Way of Water to pull in $650 million at the domestic box office it would seem that the answer is a resounding yes, people are ready of an Avatar sequel. To put in in context, a domestic haul of that size would automatically make the sequel the 7th highest grossing movie of the year based on worldwide takings. Therefore, factoring in international results and Avatar 2 is almost guaranteed to end the year as the second highest grossing movie of 2022, and could even topple Top Gun: Maverick from the top spot.

Of course, Cameron has already been given a boost ahead of the release, with the re-release of the original Avatar having landed a place in the top 40 movies of the year with $76 million taken worldwide from its September release. What is particularly interesting here is that only 32% of that came from the domestic market. If this also proves to be the case with Avatar: The Way of Water, then Cameron could once again be challenging for the top of the chart in the highest grossing movies of all time.

Even if that doesn’t happen, there is very little to suggest that Cameron isn’t going to be able to realize his five movie plan for the Avatar story. Perhaps after the last two years, Avatar: The Way of Water is not just a movie that fans want, but a movie that cinema needs.

Avatar: The Way of Water will arrive in cinemas on December 16, 2022, while Avatar 3 will arrive in 2024.