James Cameron Says New ‘Avatar’ Movie Will Have to Break Records to Break Even

It’s no secret that the Avatar movies have cost a pretty penny to make. And the upcoming Avatar: The Way of Water is no exception. According to director James Cameron, the film will have to be either the third or fourth highest grossing film in history just to break even on the production budget.

Cameron, 68, admits the forthcoming movie, which is a sequel to 2009’s Avatar, was incredibly expensive to make. And he even continued to describe the flick as the “worst business case in movie history”.

“You have to be the third or fourth highest-grossing film in history,” Cameron states, speaking to how the film could be profitable. “That’s your threshold. That’s your break even.”

The upcoming four sequels to the franchise are expected to have a budget of around $1 billion. But challenges like that are attractive to Cameron.

“I like difficult. I’m attracted by difficult. Difficult is a f****** magnet for me. I go straight to difficult.” Cameron says to GQ magazine. “And I think it probably goes back to this idea that there are lots of smart, really gifted, really talented filmmakers out there that just can’t do the difficult stuff.”

“So that gives me a tactical edge to do something nobody else has ever
seen, because the really gifted people don’t f****** want to do it.” he adds.

The Avatar Franchise Could Be Done If Way of the Water Isn’t a Success

Earlier in November 2022, Cameron stated that the Avatar franchise could be done after the first sequel, if the film isn’t a success.

“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 three, and not go on endlessly,’ if it’s just not profitable.” Cameron states.

“We’re in a different world now than we were when I wrote this stuff,
even,” he adds. “It’s the one-two punch – the pandemic and streaming. Or, conversely, maybe we’ll remind people what going to the theatre is all about. This film definitely does that. The question is, ‘How many people give a s***
now?'”

Cameron has also spoke a good bit about “hideously expensive” the Avatar films have been to make. But he insists it will be worth it for “three hours of a
pretty much insane experience”.

“There are a couple of things that I took out [of ‘The Way Of Water’] that I want to shoehorn into movie three, hopefully,” Cameron says. “These are hideously expensive movies. It was a sketchy business case before the pandemic to make a movie that cost this much.”

“At this point, we just have to play it out to see what happens. But what I know right now is: we’re delivering three hours of a pretty much insane experience.” he adds.

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