James Cameron lost his temper with an exec who begged him to make Avatar 2 shorter

(Image credit: 20th Century Studios)

James Cameron knows that Avatar: The Way of Water is long, and he's sticking by it. After viewing a rough cut of the 162-minute film, an executive reportedly approached Cameron with a "stricken cancer-diagnosis expression" and "begged" for a shorter runtime (via GQ).

"I said something I’ve never said to anybody else in the business," Cameron said, revealing what he told the executive: "I think this movie is going to make all the fucking money. And when it does, it’s going to be too late for you to love the film. The time for you to love the movie is today. So I’m not asking you to say something that you don’t feel, but just know that I will always know that no matter how complimentary you are about the movie in the future when it makes all the money."

The first Avatar made a global box office gross of over $2.9 billion. "And that’s exactly what I said, in caps, ALL THE MONEY, not some of the money, all the fucking money," Cameron continued. "I said, 'You can’t come back to me and compliment the film or chum along and say, 'Look what we did together.' You won’t be able to do that.' At that point, that particular studio executive flipped out and went bug shit on me. And I told him to get the fuck out of my office. And that’s where it was left."

The upcoming sequel has a runtime of 3 hours and 12 minutes, not far off from Avatar's runtime of 2 hours and 42 minutes. Cameron previously told Total Film that The Way of Water is longer because the emphasis in the new film is "more on character, more on story, more on relationships, more on emotion" and therefore longer in length because there are more characters and more story to service.

Avatar: The Way of Water hits theaters December 16, 2022. You can read more about the making of the sequel in the new issue of Total Film, including our extended interview with Cameron, out now! For more, check out our list of the most exciting upcoming movies in 2022 and beyond.

Lauren Milici is a Senior Entertainment Writer for GamesRadar+ based in New York City. She previously reported on breaking news for The Independent's Indy100 and created TV and film listicles for Ranker. Her work has been published in Fandom, Nerdist, Paste Magazine, Vulture, PopSugar, Fangoria, and more.