Will 'Avatar 4' and 'Avatar 5' ever happen? James Cameron says it all depends on one major aspect
In the last few years, James Cameron's 'Avatar' franchise has dominated the box office, breaking records. Following the huge success of the beloved film, Cameron created an ambitious plan for his popular sci-fi franchise. The first 'Avatar' film, released in 2009, grossed a jaw-dropping $2.9 billion at the box office. Its sequel, 'Avatar: The Way of Water', was released in 2022 and made over $2.3 billion worldwide. Meanwhile, the acclaimed filmmaker got busy working on three more sequels. Now, the third installment in the 'Avatar' film series, 'Avatar: Fire and Ash', is scheduled to hit the screens in December.
Talk about the two movies after 'Fire and Ash', 'Avatar 4'and 'Avatar 5', they will most likely be released in 2029 and 2031, respectively. Initially, these two films were looking at an earlier timeline, with the fourth installment scheduled for 2024 and the fifth for 2025; however, Cameron decided to delay the release as he wanted the technology to be good enough to bring his vision to the screen in a perfect manner. Currently, fans are eagerly anticipating 'Avatar: Fire and Ash', scheduled for release on December 19.
For those wondering about the fate of the fourth and fifth 'Avatar' movies, it is most likely to be determined by how well 'Avatar: Fire and Ash' performs at the box office. In a recent interview with Variety, Cameron voiced his concerns about whether 'Avatar: Fire and Ash' will perform well at the box office. "The big swing in all of this is, do we make any money with Avatar 3? I mean, we'll make some money. But the question is, what kind of a profit margin, if any, is there, and how much of an inducement is that to continue on in this universe? Or maybe we wait a while until we figure out how to bring costs down. Because production costs have spiraled over the last few years, especially in VFX. Everything's gone up an enormous amount, and it's starting to close out the type of films that I like to make," Cameron had said.
Talking about 'Avatar 4' and 'Avatar 4', Cameron had said, "So there's an argument for taking a pause and figuring that out. There's an argument for going out and doing some smaller, more personal film in the meantime, while that gets figured out. There's an argument, in wild success, for us just launching and just going straight into ['Avatar 4' and 'Avatar 5'] and I figure out a production methodology where I have a bit of a hiatus where I can make another film. And there's another argument that says just go make those two damn movies and figure everything else out when I'm 80."
In a separate interview, in an episode of 'The Town’ podcast, Cameron stated that he is willing to walk away if 'Avatar: Fire and Ash' flops at the box office. As per The Playlist, Cameron shared, "Absolutely. I've been in 'Avatar' land for 20 years, actually 30 years, because I wrote it in 1995, but I wasn't working continuously on it for those first ten years. There was a brief flurry of interest in '95, and then everybody said, 'You're out of your mind,' and I shelved it for ten years. And then we got serious in 2005." Soon after, Cameron mentioned that if this is the end, so be it. "Yeah, absolutely. Sure. If this is where it ends, cool," he said.
