After a 12-year gap in-between movies, James Cameron is questioning if Avatar: The Way of Water will be as big of a hit as the first Avatar. At the time of release Avatar was the highest grossing movie of all time. Avatar: The Way of Water marks the return to that world for the first time in over a decade.
Cameron is no stranger to releasing sequels years after the first movie. Aliens and Terminator 2: Judgment Day were released 7-years after their first movies. Both of those films are considered to be some of the best sequels and action movies of all time. As most sequels typically only take a few years to come out, Avatar: The Way of Water is standing out as an exception as 12-years in-between movies is nearly unheard of in the modern day. Despite reboots and remakes being commonplace today, Avatar: The Way of Water features the same director and cast as the first film. Additional sequels are currently in different stages of development that go through Avatar 5.
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Given the time that has passed between movies, Cameron is skeptical if Avatar: The Way of Water will have the same impact. Speaking to The New York Times, he discussed the time that has passed between the films. Check out his quote below:
"I was a little concerned that I had stretched the tether too far, in our fast-paced, modern world, with 'Avatar 2 coming in 12 years later. Right until we dropped the teaser trailer, and we got 148m million views in 24 hours. There’s that scarce seen but wondered at principle, which is, Wow, we haven’t seen that in a long time, but I remember how cool it was back then. Does that play in our favor? I don’t know. I guess we’re going to find out."
As Avatar is one of the most successful movies of all time, Cameron is understandably worried about trying to recapture the success of the first movie. However, everyone is underestimating Avatar: The Way of Water's box office potential. Titanic and Avatar alone put Cameron up as one of the most successful filmmakers of all time. Cameron has nearly exclusively put out hit movies, including Avatar and should expect a significant box office draw. As Cameron notes, the initial teaser trailer did draw a significant number of viewers.
Given Cameron's history with blockbuster movies, Avatar: The Way of Water should prove to be no exception. As the first Avatar is being rereleased in theaters, audiences have the opportunity to refamiliarize themselves with the world of Pandora. Despite being released so long ago, Avatar has never left the public consciousness. Between its massive box office and reintroducing audiences to the concept of 3D movies, Avatar has proven to have staying power. Avatar was a phenomenon in 2009, and Cameron will have to wait and see how his long awaited sequel will compare to the first film. It has been so many years in between movies, that Avatar has almost become novel again.