In the past month or so, both “Avatar: Fire and Ash” director James Cameron and producer Rae Sanchini indicated that Disney appears open to moving forward with fourth and fifth “Avatar” films after all, but a decision hasn’t been made yet.
At the Saturn Awards, Cameron said: “To be perfectly clear, we haven’t even made a decision if we’re going forward right now. But should I do that – I’d say that’s likely but not 100% – but we will learn from lessons from all three films.”
The reason for the studio’s hesitation comes down to two things: cost and box-office. The former is too high while the latter has been dropping, down to half that of the first film and that’s with tickets being notably more expensive taken into account.
It’s now at a point where if the films were to go ahead, they would have to be made in a more cost-effective way.
The Wrap has posted a report that says, according to their sources, conversations are happening at Disney about how to make more “Avatar” films for both cheaper and shorter to try to mitigate the investment risk.
Their sources confirm that around 22% of the fourth film has already been shot, scenes that Cameron filmed years ago while his child actors were still young and prior to a major time jump in the story. The scripts for the fourth and film films are also complete.
The success of “Zootopia 2” outgrossing the third “Avatar” film ($1.8 billion to $1.4 billion respectively), despite costing only about half as much to make and market, is causing something of a rethink as well – possibly impacting the proposed “Avatar”-themed attraction at Disney California Adventure. Their source says:
“Disney doesn’t do anything without a reason. The reality is that ‘Avatar 3’ did OK but as a cultural force, it’s exhausted. Nobody is demanding to see more. They like what they have and if they really like it, they can go to Florida and see it,” Shull told TheWrap. “California does not have a lot of land. If ‘Avatar’ had been a huge success and people were demanding ‘4’ and ‘5’ and beyond, that would change the equation. But there’s not a lot of demand.”
The piece also goes into the film’s box-office drop with the poorer critical reviews, long runtime, the later starting marketing campaign, and promotional material feeling far too similar to ‘The Way of Water’ all contributing to neuter anticipation.
Finally they indicate that the proposed new films are “said to be as radically different from “Avatar: Fire and Ash” as “Star Wars” was from “The Empire Strikes Back,” in spectacular fashion”.
