Remember 2009?
Barack Obama began the first of his two terms as president. Michael Jackson met an untimely demise. We found out about all of Tiger Woods’ affairs. Scientists discovered how to breed tuna on land (in a tank, but still). Avatar hit theaters and soon became the highest-grossing film of all time.
These simpler days are just specks of sand in Father Time’s hourglass now. But it seems that history will be repeating itself in a matter of years, not once, but four times. This is not a long-winded way of predicting that Tiger will be involved in four more future scandals (although, maybe). Rather, it’s acknowledgment that James Cameron wants to make four more Avatar movies.
Cameron has always wanted to create further editions of his box-office success. After the initial film’s success, he signed a deal with 20th Century Fox to produce three additional sequels, a number he would later amend to four in 2016. Avatar 2 was supposed to hit theaters five years after its predecessor, but has been delayed four separate times — it’s on its fifth expected release date — the most recent being about a week ago when Cameron announced in an interview with the Toronto Star that the film probably wouldn’t be making an appearance in 2018. In fact, he has no idea when it will get done.
“What people have to understand is that this is a cadence of releases,” Cameron said. “So we’re not making Avatar 2. We’re making Avatar 2, 3, 4 and 5. It’s an epic undertaking. It’s not unlike building the Three Gorges Dam.”
He then goes on to describe the production team as being in “full tilt boogie right now,” which is quite an expression.
The unfortunate thing about this specific Three Gorges Dam-level movie magic is that it feels unnecessary. So much so that I wonder if Cameron’s time would be better spent just building an actual dam.
The three highest grossing films of all time — not adjusted for inflation — are Avatar, Titanic and Star Wars: The Force Awakens, in that order. Star Wars makes sense, with its iconic characters and army of devoted fans. Titanic was a cultural phenomenon unto itself, rocketing Leonardo DiCaprio to the high level of fame he has held ever since.
But what do we remember about Avatar other than the fact that it made a ton of money? There were cool CGI effects. The planet in the film was called Pandora, I think. Everybody lost their collective mind over the way Avatars have sex with their ponytails.
Avatar sits at the top of the highest grossing movie list like a weird, undeserving uncle. It was a success in its time, but now just feels too outdated to deserve any sort of sequel, and certainly not four of them.
