He’s no stranger to splashing cash on the cinema-dominating blockbusters he’s churned out, but when it comes to Avatar 4 and 5, James Cameron has admitted he might need to watch the purse strings a little this time around.
Even after earning $1.2 billion at the box office following the success of Avatar: Fire and Ash, the Pandora-based threequel is still leagues behind the previous instalments. Avatar still stands as the most successful film of all time with $2.9 billion, and Avatar: The Way of Water raking in $2.3 billion, making it the third most successful movie ever after Avengers: Endgame.
According to Box Office Mojo, though, Fire and Ash is the 28th on the list, which should spark understandable concerns among fans of the franchise about whether Disney will give Cameron’s long-planned follow-up films the blue thumbs-up. The director himself has acknowledged that the numbers might need to be shuffled if the projects proceed as planned.
“Here’s the thing: the movie industry is depressed right now. Avatar 3 cost a lot of money,” Cameron explained during an appearance on Taiwanese outlet, TVBS News. “We have to do well in order to continue. We have to do well, and we need to figure out how to make Avatar movies more inexpensively in order to continue.”
Cameron also name-dropped Michelle Yeoh as a potential new cast member who could join the franchise if it continues. “If we continue and we do 4, we also do 4 and 5 together. So we made 2 and 3 together, one big story. And then 4 and 5 is another big story. And Michelle will be in 4 and 5. And she will play a performance capture character. Her character name is Paktu’eylat. She will be a Na’vi.”
If Yeoh does end up joining the Navi, it’ll be a while before we see it happen. Avatar 4 has been scheduled for a release on December 21, 2029, followed by Avatar 5 on December 19, 2031. While we wait, why not check out the films that are set for release this year instead?
