James Cameron will have no trouble keeping busy over the next few years.
During the latest episode of Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace, the Oscar-winning director spoke about the massive success of Avatar: The Way of Water. Cameron told the host, the blockbuster film will easily “break even,” meaning the next three installments are pretty much guaranteed.
“It looks like with the momentum that the film has now that we’ll easily pass our break even in the next few days, so it looks like I can’t wiggle out of this and I’m gonna have to do these other sequels,” Cameron said. “I know what I’m going to be doing the next six or seven years.”
Since its release last month, Avatar 2 has generated more than $1.5 billion at the global box office, making it the ninth top-grossing flick of all time. The director previously told GQ that the feature would have to become “the third or fourth highest-grossing film in history” just to “break even,” suggesting it would have to reach the $2 billion mark; however, Cameron told Wallace that the break-even point was actually lower.
“I never actually gave it a number,” he clarified. “I said it would has to be among the highest-grossing films in history and somebody else applied that number and it got picked up. The number is actually less.”
2009’s Avatar is currently the highest grosser in film history, earning $2.9 billion worldwide; 2019’s Avengers: Endgame (2019) sits at the No. 2 spot with $2.8 billion, while 1997’s Titanic is No. 3 with $2.2 billion. The No. 4 and 5 slots are occupied by 2015’s Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens and 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War, which earned $2.07 billion and $2.05 billion, respectively.
He continued: “The point is we’re going to be OK. I’m sure that we’ll have a discussion soon with with the top folks at Disney about the game plan going forward for Avatar 3, which is already in the can – we’ve already captured and photographed the whole film so we’re in extended post-production to do all that CG magic. And then Avatar 4 and 5 are both written. We even have some of 4 in the can. We’ve begun a franchise at this point. We’ve begun a saga that can now play out over multiple films.”
Avatar 3 is scheduled to hit theaters on Dec. 20, 2024, while the fourth and fifth installments will premiere on Dec. 18, 2026 and Dec. 22, 2028, respectively.
