Avatar: Fire and Ash Eyes $100–$130M Debut as Cameron Weighs Franchise’s Future
James Cameron might be unsure of Avatar’s future, but if early tracking is any indication, Avatar: Fire and Ash could be another box office burner for the filmmaker’s epic sci-fi franchise. The next installment of Cameron’s Avatar film series, Fire and Ash, is set to open in theaters worldwide on December 19. According to early tracking, the threequel could debut with $110 million or in the $100 million to $130 million range.
While science fiction is typically a male-dominated market, Cameron’s Avatar movies tend to defy expectations, bringing mass appeal to audiences across nearly every demographic. Avatar: Fire and Ash is indeed likely to open lower than the previous film in the series, Avatar: The Way of Water ($134.1M), but that hardly matters when you consider the franchise’s broad appeal and ability to grow long legs at the box office. Avatar movies stick around for a while, and near the top of the box office no less. Plus, Avatar loves to gobble up prime real estate at theaters, with most IMAX screens dedicating themselves to Cameron’s latest feat of technological wonder.
How the Avatar Sequels Were Developed
Cameron crafted these sequels with a writers’ room that consisted of Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver (who worked on The Way of Water and Fire and Ash), Josh Friedman (who was assigned to write Avatar 4), and Shane Salerno (assigned to write Avatar 5). The cast of Avatar: Fire and Ash includes Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Giovanni Ribisi, Kate Winslet, Cliff Curtis, Joel David Moore, CCH Pounder, Edie Falco, Brendan Cowell, Jemaine Clement, Britain Dalton, Trinity Jo-Li Bliss, Jack Champion, Bailey Bass, Filip Geljo, Dileep Rao, Matt Gerald, David Thewlis, and Oona Chaplin, who takes on the role of Varang, leader of the antagonistic Ash Clan. Payakan, the space whale / tulkun, also plays a part in the new sequel.
Cameron on Whether He’ll Continue the Franchise
Recently, James Cameron commented on the franchise’s future, saying he’d likely hang it up if Fire and Ash underperforms. During an interview on The Town with Matthew Belloni podcast, Cameron said (with thanks to SuperHeroHype for the transcription), “I have no doubt in my mind that this movie will make money. The question is, does it make enough money to justify doing it again?” He is “absolutely” ready to set the franchise aside if there’s no more demand for sequels. “I’ve been in Avatar land for 20 years. Actually, 30 years, because I wrote it in ’95. But I wasn’t working continuously on it for those first ten years. There was a brief flurry of interest in ’95, and then everybody said you’re out of your mind, and I shelved it for 10 years. Then, we got serious in 2005. Yeah, absolutely, sure. If this is where it ends, cool.”
While Avatar: Fire and Ash will leave “one open thread” unresolved for a potential sequel to pick up on, Cameron will finish the story by writing a follow-up novel if necessary.
Will Avatar: Fire and Ash make enough money to warrant another sequel? Will audiences still be interested in the land of Pandora after the latest installment of the series does what it will do? As Cameron said, 30 years is a long time to work on anything. I’m not even involved in the making of the Avatar film, and I’m already exhausted by the idea of another chapter in the series. Do you think Avatar has a future beyond Fire and Ash? Let us know in the comments section below.
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