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Interview: James Cameron Avatar 2 2018 release Unlikely

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gamz

Member
I'm not even sure it will make a billion dollars. People watched it because of "OMG 3D, gotta see it!", 3D is now an old hat and neither the story nor the characters were anything special. It will not flop but I think if people expect Avatar numbers from the sequel they'll be very disappointed.

You're nuts. It'll easily make that. China alone will be huge.
 

sankt-Antonio

:^)--?-<
Only hope I have is that he starts merging the terminator universe with avatars and have them collide in movie 3 or 4 with a big finale in movie 5. Catman vs mankind vs CGI Arnie.
 
Sad that this will basically waste the rest of Cameron's career. Thinking all the awesome stuff we could have see from him instead of Smurf romances.
 

JimiNutz

Banned
I really hope these Avatar films are something special because the Avatar franchise has taken up such a ridiculous amount of James Cameron's time and I'd hate for all that time to be wasted on a mediocre franchise.
 

jett

D-Member
I really hope these Avatar films are something special because the Avatar franchise has taken up such a ridiculous amount of James Cameron's time and I'd hate for all that time to be wasted on a mediocre franchise.

I have to imagine he's got big, interesting ideas for the Abadar sequels
 
Avatar 2 opening night, you see that they are closing the doors and not letting anyone else in. " Place your electronics in the hermetic bag under your seat and put on your 4D visor breathing mask " comes up in the screen. Thousands of gallons of water start to pour in.
 

Solo

Member
December 18, 2019. Wednesday opening and 10 years to the day of the first film's release.

Also, although the delays/wait are comical, if not farcical at this point, I know A2 will be amazing, whenever it hits. Cameron will deliver, as always.
 

Ahasverus

Member
It's never happening.
I really hope these Avatar films are something special because the Avatar franchise has taken up such a ridiculous amount of James Cameron's time and I'd hate for all that time to be wasted on a mediocre franchise.
Indeed. If they are going to be as bland as the first one, that would be a waste of everybody's time. It's baffling that he wants to dedicate the rest of his life to such a bland concept.
 

Solo

Member
Or Option #2: theatrical re-release of A1 on December 18, 2019 to get it back on people's radars, and A2 hits on Friday, December 18, 2020. It'll be one of those 2.
 
It's never happening.

Indeed. If they are going to be as bland as the first one, that would be a waste of everybody's time. It's baffling that he wants to dedicate the rest of his life to such a bland concept.

How is the concept on itself bland? It is a whole new alien planet, he could put almost any plot in it.
 

Solo

Member
Nope. First rule of the movie business: Do not fuck with Star Wars. Cameron knows this.

Really? I kinda thought that the first rule of the movie business was do not fuck with James Cameron.....

untitledw8jfe.jpg
 

Jacce

Banned
I'm just having a really hard time reconciling

A) My love for Cameron
B) How utterly flat and unengaging I found the characters and story in Avatar
C) How much money Avatar made
D) What a large commitment four sequels back to back is and why thats leading a standalone decent sequel release to be pushed back multiple years in a row now.
E) How visually Cameron is a stunning director and has pulled some of my favourite effect shots of all time, coupled with how I found Avatar technically impressive but definite 'Cartoony' CGI territory.

It's such a weird franchise for me to get a handle on.
I know what you mean.

The Terminator and The Abyss are both 2 of my top 10 sci-fi movies ever made. T2 and Aliens are near perfect action movies. True Lies is a better Bond film than many Bond films. Titanic is a incredible romantic epic.

Avatar...left me cold and empty. The characters did not have that Cameron charm. Jake Sully was just a forgettable empty nothing. The endless cgi made me feel less wowed than any past Cameron movie.

At the time of release I loved it, saw it 3 times and bought the bluray. I think the 3D masked the films flaws. Over time as we get further from release it without question has aged worst than any Cameron movie since Pirahana 2. And that depresses me, I miss Cameron movies.

Really? I kinda thought that the first rule of the movie business was do not fuck with James Cameron.....

untitledw8jfe.jpg
Overseas yes, domestically Star Wars owns Cameron. And Studios care far more about domestic grosses still due to retaining a massively higher percentage of gross here. Especially compared to China.

Overseas gross is fun for internet arguing but a studio much rather have the domestic gross of The Force Awakens over the overseas gross of Avatar if they had to pick one.

When it comes to the numbers that actually matter to a film studio, Star Wars wins. Not James Cameron.
 

Blader

Member
Wasn't JJ fairly restrained and victim to by-committee politics bs while making Force Awakens? I'm skeptical even Rian's voice is going to shine in VIII. For that reason I'm worried less about Trevorrow's involvement.
I don't think so. The only instance of running into Disney resistance I can remember is their dispute over the release date.

Also, I generally like JJ, but he doesn't really have much of a "voice" to be stamped out by studio interference anyway.

The other thing is once VIII is out, Disney looks to be putting Star Wars back in May. Solo is May 25, and the tentative Episode IX date is May 24th, I believe. IX starts shooting in the summer, so it may not move unless there's major script issues.

So Avatar will not have as big a fight ahead.

Wouldn't it start shooting next year?
 

DevilDog

Member
Indeed. If they are going to be as bland as the first one, that would be a waste of everybody's time. It's baffling that he wants to dedicate the rest of his life to such a bland concept.

Speak for yourself and your boring ass. I loved the first movie and I can't wait for the second.

If anything, the general public will go to see just the technical aspect of it. Everyone will get to see something cool in it.
 

Solo

Member
I
Overseas yes, domestically Star Wars owns Cameron. And Studios care far more about domestic grosses still due to retaining a massively higher percentage of gross here. Especially compared to China.

Overseas gross is fun for internet arguing but a studio much rather have the domestic gross of The Force Awakens over the overseas gross of Avatar if they had to pick one.

How does Star Wars domestically "own" Cameron when there is literally ONE Star Wars film (hell, literally ONE film period) ahead of Avatar and Titanic on the all-time domestic chart? By my math, that puts the 7 other Star Wars movies behind Avatar and Titanic.
 

Jacce

Banned
A big thing people forget about is how hurt Avatar is by merchandise sales.

Star Wars and Marvel for example each bring in billions of revenue each in toy sales every year.

Avatar toys and merchandise was a gigantic disaster in 2009/2010. Avatar action figures were on clearance while film was still out and just not selling at all.

Disney makes more off Star Wars toys than Fox will ever be able to make off Avatar movies even if every single one of them does well over 2 billion worldwide.

What made Star Wars into the all time franchise king wasn't ticket sales but toy sales. No kid wanted Avatar toys. That was a major major drag on the initial film.
 
With every year that passes, Avatar becomes less impressive and it becomes more evident how it coasted solely on technical achievement alone and was mediocre everywhere else.

I wouldn't hedge my bets on people turning out for Avatar 4 in 2025 - though the Disney park might drum up a little interest from younger audiences.
 

whoszed

Member
If these movies were a total shit show, someone would've told him, right?

I certainly hope they'll be good but it's such a ridiculous plan to be making like 4 or 5 movies at the same time.
 

Jacce

Banned
How does Star Wars domestically "own" Cameron when there is literally ONE Star Wars film (hell, literally ONE film period) ahead of Avatar and Titanic on the all-time domestic chart? By my math, that puts the 7 other Star Wars movies behind Avatar and Titanic.
Anyone who thinks TLJ will do less than 800 mil domestic after the TFA cliff hanger and then a spin off prequel did over 500 million is literally blind. 800 mil domestic and the #2 all time domestic spot for Episode 8 is an absolute 100% lock unless the film is beyond terrible.
 

gamz

Member
If these movies were a total shit show, someone would've told him, right?

I certainly hope they'll be good but it's such a ridiculous plan to be making like 4 or 5 movies at the same time.

Has Cameron ever made a total shit show of a movie? Yes, it's a ridiculous plan. Just like it was ridiculous plan spending 200M on Titanic.
 
Anyone who thinks TLJ will do less than 800 mil domestic after the TFA cliff hanger and then a spin off prequel did over 500 million is literally blind. 800 mil domestic and the #2 all time domestic spot for Episode 8 is an absolute 100% lock unless the film is beyond terrible.

k. Avatar still made a whole billion more internationally. So you think the percentage return of a billion dollars is negligible to studios or what?
 

Solo

Member
Anyone who thinks TLJ will do less than 800 mil domestic after the TFA cliff hanger and then a spin off prequel did over 500 million is literally blind. 800 mil domestic and the #2 all time domestic spot for Episode 8 is an absolute 100% lock unless the film is beyond terrible.

I never said anything about TLJ or future films. Obviously TLJ will do amazingly well. Just trying to have a discussion about box office facts. And those facts are that Avatar/Titanic are #2 and #3 all-time domestically, behind TFA and ahead of every other SW film, and #1 and #2 all-time worldwide.

On that note, however, I cannot believe a turd like Jurassic World and the mediocre Rogue One are both in the domestic top 10. Sad.
 

Jacce

Banned
k. Avatar still made a whole billion more internationally. So you think the percentage return of a billion dollars is negligible to studios or what?
The amount of money TFA made domestically is more important to the studio yes. Domestic gross is still king for Studios due to the take home being massively larger. Domestic is much much more important and will remain so till Studios somehow are able to get better international %'s. A huge chunk of Avatars international gross came from China where the Studios cut is very minimal.
 

jett

D-Member
A big thing people forget about is how hurt Avatar is by merchandise sales.

Star Wars and Marvel for example each bring in billions of revenue each in toy sales every year.

Avatar toys and merchandise was a gigantic disaster in 2009/2010. Avatar action figures were on clearance while film was still out and just not selling at all.

Disney makes more off Star Wars toys than Fox will ever be able to make off Avatar movies even if every single one of them does well over 2 billion worldwide.

What made Star Wars into the all time franchise king wasn't ticket sales but toy sales. No kid wanted Avatar toys. That was a major major drag on the initial film.

Yes. Kiddies not being interested in Avatar merch truly impaired on the quality of the movie, I certainly could not enjoy it knowing children weren't playing with the fruits of Chinese slave labor. What a shame. :(
 

Jacce

Banned
Who cares about the studio take though, unless you happen to work at Disney or Fox.
When we have dick measuring contests about how many dollars the movie made that is a pretty huge factor as the $ from domestic grosses have a much larger impact for the studio since they get a much smaller take from overseas, especially in China. We aren't comparing how many people saw it/ticket sales. That would be a different story.
 

gamz

Member
The amount of money TFA made domestically is more important to the studio yes. Domestic gross is still king for Studios due to the take home being massively larger. Domestic is much much more important and will remain so till Studios somehow are able to get better international %'s. A huge chunk of Avatars international gross came from China where the Studios cut is very minimal.

Yes, Fox was REALLY disappointed by the 760M take from Avatar domestic.

and a huge chunk didn't only come from China. It grossed 200M there. Where did the other 1.8B come from.
 

Solo

Member
When we have dick measuring contests about how many dollars the movie made that is a pretty huge factor as the $ from domestic grosses have a much larger impact for the studio since they get a much smaller take from overseas, especially in China. We aren't comparing how many people saw it/ticket sales. That would be a different story.

I don't know about anyone else, but for me, the only box office dick measuring metric that counts is gross box office. Not return on investment (because again, who cares unless you're a shareholder or work for the company). I don't care if Film A makes $600M and the studio gets $200M back and Film B makes $500M but gets $250M back to the studio. Film A still is the higher grossing film, which is what box office dick waving is all about. If it weren't, then the metric would be related to ROI, and not about who has the biggest gross.
 
He's making a theme park too? Is James Cameron saving up to build an underwater fortress or something?

He's not making a theme park Disney is building an avatar world at the animal kingdom theme park. That's the ironic thing about all this debate because Disney will probably help reinvigorate the franchise by giving people real world Pandora and the movie will probably help keep interest in the park really high.
 

gamz

Member
He's not making a theme park Disney is building an avatar world at the animal kingdom theme park. That's the ironic thing about all this debate because Disney will probably help reinvigorate the franchise by giving people real world Pandora and the movie will probably help keep interest in the park really high.

Even more ironic is Disney was thisclose from getting Avatar after Fox balked on it. It was only when Disney said yes, Fox stepped in and gave in. Can you imagine if Disney had the Avatar franchise too? Whew!
 

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
The dumbest thing they never did with the Avatar franchise was start an animated TV show based on the original movie after the fact. If it was well done and got popular it would have kept the interest in Avatar a lot higher and would have had people talking about it long after they stopped when it was just that first movie. That movie was huge and an event but then it was over and a year later people had moved on. Not releasing any kind of TV series or videogame or anything of merit after the original movie was a big dumb move when they were obviously trying to turn it into a huge cultural phenomenon.
 

gamz

Member
The dumbest thing they never did with the Avatar franchise was start an animated TV show based on the original movie after the fact. If it was well done and got popular it would have kept the interest in Avatar a lot higher and would have had people talking about it long after they stopped when it was just that first movie. That movie was huge and an event but then it was over and a year later people had moved on. Not releasing any kind of TV series or videogame or anything of merit after the original movie was a big dumb move when they were obviously trying to turn it into a huge cultural phenomenon.

And yet there's a new game coming out and Disney has Avatar Land. *shrugs*
 

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
And yet there's a new game coming out and Disney has Avatar Land. *shrugs*

Nearly a decade later. They should have had a cartoon show on Disney or someplace a year after the movie came out and pushed it. Not a gaurantee it would have worked especially if the show sucked but if they could hook an audience, especially kids they would have had at least had a way to keep Avatar in people's minds outside of the movie which faded out of public memory pretty quickly outside of 3D and all the money it made.
 
Wasn't JJ fairly restrained and victim to by-committee politics bs while making Force Awakens?

Not at all.

I'm skeptical even Rian's voice is going to shine in VIII

They're leaving him alone too.

The narrative you're referencing isn't based in much truth.

Who cares about the studio take though, unless you happen to work at Disney or Fox.


Well that's basically the whole point of even worrying about box office though. Citing the numbers and then shrugging off what they mean and how/why they count doesn't make sense. If you don't care, you're not looking at em in the first place. If you do care... You care. So those distinctions do mean something.
 

firelogic

Member
Disney already has Episode IX locked for Dec 2019, and Avatar 2 gets killed in the US going head to head with it if in Dec.

Disney has Han Solo in May 2018 and Episode IX in May 2019. They're moving away from December after Episode VIII for whatever mind-boggling reason.
 

gamz

Member
Disney has Han Solo in May 2018 and Episode IX in May 2019. They're moving away from December after Episode VIII for whatever mind-boggling reason.

The reason is money. Why go against Avatar 2? They'll both effect each other grosses.
 
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