Avatar: Fire and Ashes is in theaters, but the director, James Cameron, is cautious, as he knows the latest film will have to gross an impressive amount of money to justify the next two expensive installments.
“We are getting ahead of ourselves, because first of all we have to earn some money from this,” says the filmmaker. Varietyadding that he is reluctant to comment on the future of the franchise until the current film’s box office picture is clear. “Every time we go out, we have to prove this crazy business case again.
He continues: “The world has changed. We all know the statistics, where theatrics are. It’s been a bad year. Things are starting to brighten up a bit with a few recent releases: ‘Wicked: For Good’ has done well, and ‘Zootopia 2’ is doing well. So we’ll see.”
This isn’t the first time James has shared that Avatar3 Money has to be made to continue the franchise.
“Are we going to make any money on ‘Avatar 3’? I mean, we’ll make some money. But the question is, what kind of profit margin is there, if there is one, and how much of an incentive is that to continue in this universe? Or maybe we’ll wait a while until we figure out how to bring costs down,” he previously told the outlet.
Disney, the studio behind Avatar, reportedly spent $350 million per film, along with $150 million on marketing.
In return, the Avatar has raised nearly $3 trillion, and its sequel, The way of water, has raised $2.3 billion. In the meantime, Avatar: Fire and Ashes took in $345 million in its opening weekend.
