James Cameron has told CNN anchor Chris Wallace that owing to the favourable result at the box office, he will be keeping his promise to make more Avatar movies.
In the interview for Who’s Asking Chris Wallace? expected to air Sunday, the director says Avatar: The Way of Water is doing so well at the box office that it appears the future of the franchise is set, despite shedding some realistic doubt in the past.
“It looks like, just with the momentum that the film has now, that we’ll easily pass our break even in the next few days, actually,” Cameron tells Wallace in an interview that’s available now on HBO Max and debuting Sunday on CNN. “So, it looks like I can’t wiggle out of this. I’m gonna have to do these other sequels.”
He goes on to say that he is sure that he will have a discussion soon 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. And then Avatar 4 and 5 are both written. We even have some of 4 in the can. So, I think we can see that, I think, we’ve begun a franchise at this point.”
Disney had previously set four sequels to 2009’s Avatar, including this year’s Avatar: The Way of Water, for releases in theatres every two years until 2028. Cameron previously confirmed to EW that he shot The Way of Water, the third film, and the first act of the fourth film simultaneously. Sometimes they would shoot scenes from multiple films on the same day. However, during the press tour for Avatar 2, Cameron said the future of the later sequels was dependent on the success of The Way of Water in theatres.
“The market could be telling us we’re done in three months, or we might be semi-done, meaning: ‘OK, let’s complete the story within movie 3, and not go on endlessly,’ if it’s just not profitable,” he had said.
One day after breaking into the top 10 highest-grossing films of all time worldwide, Avatar: The Way of Water became the ninth highest-grossing film, surpassing 2012’s The Avengers with a total of more than $1.546 billion.
