The “Avatar” phenomenon, or lack of a long tail on it, is one of the weirdest stories in movie history. James Cameron’s sci-fi epic was a gargantuan, unprecedented hit back in 2009 — only two other movies have come within even a billion dollars of its $2.788 billion take (Cameron’s own “Titanic” and “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”), and they’re both at least $600 million behind. It’s a record that may eventually be toppled, but it’s unlikely to happen for a long time yet, and it’s shocking that it happened for a weird movie not a sequel or based on a comic book about blue elves.
But what’s perhaps more shocking is the lack of pop culture impact it’s had in the long run. Sequels were always in the plan, and Disney were so sure that it was the next big thing that they built an entire area of Disneyland around it, and yet people rarely talk about Cameron’s movie these days. There’s little in the way of spin-off merchandise, geek blogs focus on Star Wars and the MCU, and if sequels are brought up, it’s mostly to mock their sheer quantity (four have been announced) and ever-sliding release dates: the original plan was to start putting them out from December 2016, which obviously didn’t happen.
But the mocking might have to stop, because Deadline have revealed that, after years of script tweaks, push-backs and probably Cameron going deep-sea diving for a bit, production has finally begun on “Avatar 2.” And not just “Avatar 2,” but “Avatar 3,” “Avatar 4” and “Avatar 5,” with the movies being shot concurrently in Manhattan Beach.
It’s a typically ambitious schedule — even Peter Jackson’s “Lord Of The Rings” trilogy shot only three at once — and as you might imagine from Cameron, who has shattered the record for most expensive film ever made almost every time he’s turned on a camera (Rob Marshall’s “Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” is currently the official record holder, having somehow cost nearly $400 million), it’s going to cost a pretty penny. The four films together will cost a billion dollars.
Yes, a billion dollars. When spread across the four films, that’s actually $250 million a piece, which is about standard for the high-end of a modern tentpole, and there are almost certainly movies in production that would be much higher than that (no official figure has been made clear for the two “Avengers” movies currently in production, but given the actor costs alone, we’d be shocked if they didn’t clock in at about $500 million a piece), but it’s worth noting that Cameron tends to, uh, creep over budget a bit, so this figure may yet rise.
Anyway, good news for Sam Worthington and the rest of the returning cast (almost everyone is back, including actors who died before like Stephen Lang and Sigourney Weaver), whille Cliff Curtis and Oona Chaplin have been confirmed to be joining the cast for the new films. Josh Friedman, Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver and Shane Salerno have been writing with Cameron on the movies and they’ll be released on December 18th, 2020, Dec 17th 2021, December 20th 2024 and December 19th, 2025, so expect a long wait — material’s being show now that won’t be on screen for eight whole years…
Gore Verbinski directed Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, not Rob Marshall.
Nope. It was Rob Marshall.
My bad, got the titles mixed-up.
I wonder why the three year break between parts 2 and 3 and part so 4 and 5 of they are shooting them all together?
I would think post-production, CGI. It’ll probably be concentrated on the first two films first.
I have literally read an article a week since Avatar came out about how no one talks about it any more. That’s a lot of not talking.
Waste of time since you could have used that money to feed the entire country of Haiti.
Priorities and first world problems, my friend. He couldn’t just make one good sequel. He has to make 4 at quadruple the cost. There’s no shame.
Define the “you” in your scenario. You as in “the studio”, that employes thousands of people and pay taxes based on that. They should according to your statement not have made films, but to take that money from all of their investors to “feed the entire country of Haiti” instead. Why just feed them, why not clothed them as well? And why Haiti? Why not Mexico, Kongo, North Korea, Sweden or Canada just for the hell of it.
And what have you personally done for Haiti lately mr Jordan Newell White? How many people in the entire country have you fed?
Correction: The land based on Avatar (Pandora) is in Disney’s Animal Kingdom in Florida not at Disneyland.
Seriously, does ANYONE still care about this movie franchise AT ALL??? Besides Joe Rohde of course.
FOUR more movies??? Im going to laugh my ass off if the 2nd one bombs.
Prepare to frown. A lot.
I’ve never bet against James Cameron and I never will. If he thinks he has an idea for four films, it’s almost guaranteed that they’ll be something very interesting.
I rarely comment on things, but Jesus Christ…this has to be one of the most poorly-written articles I’ve ever read in my entire life. From the Disneyland mistake to the simple typos to the complete lack of coherency in Lyttelton’s thought process. I won’t be visiting “The Playlist” again.