Thanks to a 2021 rerelease that nudged it past Avengers: Endgame, 2009’s Avatar remains the highest grossing movie of all time.
Its haul — before a September re-rerelease — stands at $2.8 billion.
That said, there are many who wonder how Avatar got there in the first place. Director James Cameron has heard those gripes; in true James Cameron form, the man working on four sequels to the original doesn’t hold back.
“The trolls will have it that nobody gives a sh** and they can’t remember the characters’ names or one damn thing that happened in the movie,” he grouses to Empire magazine. “Then they see the movie again and go, ‘Oh, OK, excuse me, let me just shut the f*** up right now.'”
He’s also not worried about the run time of December’s sequel, Avatar: The Way of Water which — as of now — is around three hours.
“I don’t want anybody whining about length when they sit and binge-watch [TV] for eight hours,” Cameron says. “I can almost write this part of the review. ‘The agonizingly long three-hour movie …’ It’s like, give me a f***ing break …”
He adds, “Here’s the big social paradigm shift that has to happen: it’s OK to get up and go pee.”
As for its three sequels, which will roll out through 2028, the Titanic Oscar winner explains, “I think eventually … after [Avatar] three or after four — I’ll want to pass the baton to a director that I trust to take over,” he mused, adding, “Or maybe not. I don’t know.”
Cameron says the third Avatar movie is in the can, having shot concurrently with the second, which adds Kate Winslet to its original cast, which includes Sigourney Weaver, Zoe Saldaña and Sam Worthington.
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