Editorial: What Does Avatar 2’s Delay Mean for Star Wars?

For a time after James Cameron announced that he was finally ready to start filming his four Avatar sequels, it seemed as though there was an unspoken guarantee between The Walt Disney Company and Twentieth Century Fox to let each other take turns conquering the December box office with massive sci-fi releases. But since the announcement that Avatar 2 would be getting delayed yet again, it’s safe to say that the internet is calling that plan into question. Here’s what the film’s delay will mean for Star Wars and Disney’s interest in the Avatar franchise as a whole.

 

 

The Avatar Franchise Explained

 

Once upon a time, there was a filmmaker named James Cameron. This man liked to make movies and he was very good at making lots of money, so all but one of the movies that he directed were box office successes, and more importantly, they were all good to varying degrees. Two of his films, however, came in danger of putting Twentieth Century Fox in financial jeopardy – the first being Titanic, which shocked the world by having some of the best legs on any blockbuster ever in spite of being the first movie with a budget of $200M. Over a decade later, the second movie – which relied heavily on the dormant 3-D format – was finally made. Like its predecessor, Avatar blew everyone’s financial expectations away when the film made over $2.7B in its global run, making it the highest-grossing film of all time when not accounting for inflation. Unlike TitanicAvatar had franchise potential that was waiting to be tapped into, and Fox knew that they weren’t going to let that opportunity pass.

 

 

Avatar has a weird position in popular culture, though. In spite of being one of the most successful films of all time, the movie has largely been forgotten in the years following its release. Titanic left a huge impact on popular culture by becoming the highest-grossing movie at the time, kickstarting Leonardo DiCaprio’s career, and being tied to a Celine Dion song that played at literally every wedding for at least half a decade. Not so much with Avatar – the last time popular culture actually acknowledged that the movie exists was about a year or two after its release, and these days you’d be hard-pressed to find any Na’vi cosplay at any of the major comic conventions or anything resembling an Avatar fandom that isn’t already ingrained within Cameron’s existing fanbase (who usually prefer to gush over Aliens and Terminator 2: Judgment Day instead).

 

And, quite honestly, that’s a shame, considering the effort that was put into creating such a lush world and an extensively-detailed setting (even if that same effort wasn’t put into that movie’s fairly derivative story). But again, it’s worth noting that Avatar made damn close to $3B in a single go. That’s no small feat no matter how you look at it, and a studio would have to be insane not to greenlight another one, especially with something that had such an extensive amount of room to grow as a franchise. Given that Cameron has such a successful track record at Fox, and is one of the few science-fiction visionaries that chooses to repeatedly work with the studio, they were going to let him do what he damn well pleased – and that plan involved three sequels, all of which they greenlit faster than you can say “cash cow.”

 

 

The Avatar Sequels

 

At some point along the way, the planned release windows for the movies kept getting pushed back as three sequels became four – as development on the scripts progressed, Cameron and the other writers decided that they had too much material for an entire trilogy, and that it would be better to bump up the total length of the franchise by another installment instead of making incredibly long movies. Fox wasn’t going to complain about the cost this would add to the budget because they were working with James Cameron, the guy that could have bankrupted their studio twice but instead gave them a pair of movies that grossed $2B+ each, and as The Hobbit showed, stretching your movie out with an extra installment can lead to extra revenue. While the jury’s still out on these movies could actually put Fox in jeopardy, there’s no denying that Cameron is a master at getting butts into seats – even if it’s taken him an absurdly long time to work on a follow-up to his biggest movie ever. Back at 2016’s CinemaCon, Cameron officially announced that he and Fox were targeting four release windows for the Avatar sequels (which would comprise a single, massive production) – the Decembers of 2018, 2020, 2022, and 2023 would all have their own Avatar movie, which would link up quite nicely with what appears to be Disney’s annual plan for Star Wars sequels and spin-offs… Until Avatar 2 got delayed for the umpteenth time by Cameron’s own admission. Shocking.

 

 

The current schedule, if Eywa be willing, is that the movies will all hit in the Decembers of 2020, 2021, 2024, and 2025. Why should we entertain the possibility that the Avatar sequels are finally in development (for real this time)? For starters, Cameron admitted that writing movies was always the biggest pain in the ass for him as a director, and has suggested that the reason for one of the delays had to do with the fact that they determined that they’d need a fourth sequel to wrap everything up. Recently, they’ve gone into casting supporting characters for the next movie as well, which is something they’ve never done up until this point (at least not beyond saying that most of the key players in the original would be appearing again). Fox probably doesn’t want to wait all that much longer, either, as it seems as if it’ll take more than late-2000s nostalgia for the original to make sure that these movies do well.

 

 

Why Avatar Matters To Disney

 

Cameron’s latest delay in the long saga of promising that we’ll get more Avatar eventually has a lot to do with his own perfectionistic tendencies as a director, but it looks like we’ll be getting it and some other movies next decade. Still, for a time it seemed like there was a real possibility that Avatar 2 and Star Wars Episode IX would both arrive in 2019, which would have led to a white-hot December. What would a match-up of two substantial sci-fi properties have looked like, you might ask? Well…

 

 

Let’s just say that it wouldn’t end well, and not just for Avatar. While Star Wars would easily be the winner in this situation by means of having a much more active fanbase, the presence of two big-budget sci-fi movies competing with each other in the same release window means that business on both films would inevitably suffer than they would have if they had been released separately. Having two franchise movies of the same genre release so close to one another can prove to be disastrous, as seen with last year’s superhero underperformer X-Men: Apocalypse and outright bomb Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out Of The Shadows being released a week apart from one another. Conversely, Warner Brothers played it smart by bringing Batman V. Superman: Dawn Of Justice‘s release date ahead by six weeks instead of having the movie open on the same day that Captain America: Civil War did – even if the former did underperform overall, it made upwards of $300M domestically and outdid its immediate predecessor, which is something that neither XMA or TMNTOOTS were remotely close to accomplishing (since neither release managed to make $200M stateside, even though XMA’s predecessor did and TMNTOOTS’s predecessor came pretty close to it in the much less favorable release window of August).

 

While Disney would want Star Wars to come out on top over Avatar if the two were released in similar frames – which they won’t, as it’s good for the franchise to have breathing room – it would still be in their best interest for Avatar to do well. After all, they’ve just invested a ton of resources in a theme park expansion that’s going to open later this month, and if people see the new movies, then that translates to greater park attendance which then translates to more money for Disney… Even if it takes three whole years for park attendance to spike in conjunction with the release of a new Avatar movie. Beyond this, if Avatar and sci-fi franchises like it continue to do well in regions that have been tough for Star Wars to crack in the past two years (looking at you, China), then this can be crucial for Disney’s plans to expand their already massive brand.

 

 

Scheduling Star Wars (And Avatar, Too)

 

 

Episode IX has been confirmed to be a May 2019 release, though there’s still technically room for the movie to be a December 2019 release – neither of which will be affecting Avatar at the current rate. As it stands, it looks like the only potential conflict of scheduling between Avatar and Star Wars is the 2020 movie that’s been planned, but not dated, and it currently looks like that might be a non-issue if Disney is really committed to moving the franchise back to a late-May window. 2018 losing an Avatar movie seemingly gave Lucasfilm another opportunity – Han Solo has been scheduled for a May 2018 release window, but it could move to December should Disney choose. Many have wondered: could Han Solo get a delay to take advantage of the spot that Avatar vacated?

 

…Probably not. For starters, there’s the presence of Disney’s Mary Poppins Returns, which is looking to arrive on Christmas Day. Obviously, a Mary Poppins movie isn’t going to make Star Wars money, or even Jungle Book money for that matter, but it’s a Disney movie all the same and they’re going to make sure that they make as much money as possible off of it. Releasing a movie like Star Wars would definitely overshadow that and would cut into the film’s profits (case in point: The BFG being one of Disney’s biggest flops in recent years after coming off of the heels of Finding Dory). As far as mid-December blockbuster movies go, it appears as though Aquaman is going to fill the void that Avatar 2 left (an interesting decision, given that Jason Momoa’s take on the superhero is rumored to be the breakout character of Justice League, which comes out a little over a year prior). Not to mention that another Lord & Miller movie, the currently-untitled Miles Morales: Ultimate Spider-Man animated film that they wrote and are producing, will be released in that same window. Disney might be shrewd as a business, but I think that they have more tact than to do something to screw over two people that are already on their payroll over a movie that they’re also passionate about.

 

A December release is inherently a double-edged sword, as seen with both The Force Awakens and Rogue One – there’s room for huge profits when a picture opens, but a lot of your audience disappears once they have to go back to work and school. I honestly don’t think that Han Solo is going to make $1B (not that it needs to in order to be successful), and I suspect that the people running Disney don’t think so either, so there’s no sense in trying to release the movie in December when there’s going to inevitably be a huge drop-off at the beginning of January. Especially when a competing blockbuster – the thing that the December release dates for the past three Star Wars movies were designed to avoid – and an animated movie appealing to the same audiences that Star Wars attracts are already there in the first place. Summer is a safe place for this kind of a movie; even if it’s crowded in terms of high-profile releases, attendance will be high enough for the entire season that competition won’t really hurt it, just in the same way that the Beauty and the Beast remake didn’t have to worry about losing business to Logan and Kong: Skull Island in spite of the fact that both of those movies were hits. More importantly, it ensures that Disney’s two biggest tentpoles of the year will dominate the entire month of May and a good portion of June, which together form a substantial portion of annual box office profits.

 

 

But aside from those existing factors that make such a massive, seven month push-back unlikely, the biggest indicator that there will be no delay is that we never had any official word that a December release date was even being considered for the Han Solo movie. Bob Iger outright stated that the movie was always planned for a May 2018 release window as far back as March 2016. Filming’s already underway with a script that’s been complete for some time, unlike Rian Johnson’s post-TFA rewrites that pushed production up a month and the release date up by seven months (and those were entirely dependent on the changes Johnson had to make in conjunction with changes that were made to the final version of the script to The Force Awakens).

 

So that just leaves us with room to speculate about future Star Wars movies and how they’ll come out in relation to the planned Avatar sequels. Right now, we’re still operating on the impression that there will be one Star Wars movie a year for a while, though it’s possible that they could take a break if they really want to build up hype for an additional trilogy. However, in the event that a future Star Wars movie ends up being scheduled for a window close to what Fox has planned for Avatar, one should expect the Fox franchise to be the one that budges. To make a long story short: Star Wars shouldn’t have to worry about Avatar so long as Lucasfilm sticks to Summer releases, which is looking to be the norm after this December. Avatar, in spite of being the highest-grossing movie of all time, has a lot to prove as an actual franchise, but since Disney has a vested interest in the property, so it’s incredibly unlikely that there will be a scenario in which these franchises have to compete against one another.

 

Are you looking forward to the Avatar sequels? Do you think James Cameron took too much time to make a follow-up to his movie? Let us know in the comments section below.

 

 

+ posts

Grant has been a fan of Star Wars for as long as he can remember, having seen every movie on the big screen. When he’s not hard at work with his college studies, he keeps himself busy by reporting on all kinds of Star Wars news for SWNN and general movie news on the sister site, Movie News Net. He served as a frequent commentator on SWNN’s The Resistance Broadcast.

Grant Davis (Pomojema)

Grant has been a fan of Star Wars for as long as he can remember, having seen every movie on the big screen. When he’s not hard at work with his college studies, he keeps himself busy by reporting on all kinds of Star Wars news for SWNN and general movie news on the sister site, Movie News Net. He served as a frequent commentator on SWNN’s The Resistance Broadcast.

82 thoughts on “Editorial: What Does Avatar 2’s Delay Mean for Star Wars?

  • May 15, 2017 at 8:06 pm
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    Gotta say, Avatar never really got to me. Yeah, it looked really cool and all, but, thinking back to my single days, it was like that really pretty gal you go up to at the bar and then the second you start talking with her you realize that she has absolutely nothing to say, and yet she keeps on talking. Flash alone has never really done much for me, and IMHO that’s where Avatar fell way short for me.

    As for release schedules, I think it’s pretty obvious that LFL is shifting back to the classic Memorial Day weekend Opening Day for the Star Wars franchise. Given that the Solo movie is still apparently filming, I will be pretty surprised if they don’t bump it back to December of next year to avoid cutting it too close and having the final product suffer for it (not that I’m expecting all that much from that particular flick, mind you.) But so far we haven’t heard anything about Solo not making its announced 5/25/18 release date, so I’m assuming we’ll be back to the Memorial Day schedule come next year.

    Which should keep plenty of space between Star Wars and Avatar for the foreseeable future.

  • May 15, 2017 at 8:22 pm
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    “Make four Avatar sequels, please!”, said no one ever.

  • May 15, 2017 at 8:26 pm
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    Keep in mind that the original release for The Force Awakens was May. They want that May slot.

    • May 15, 2017 at 9:44 pm
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      But then it made 2 billion dollars in that roomy December release. they should value that December slot.

      • May 15, 2017 at 9:47 pm
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        It probably would have nearly as well in Summer. Star Wars is friggin’ Star Wars, man.

        – Pomojema

        • May 15, 2017 at 9:51 pm
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          Still. Fewer competing movies means more screens, and more screens means more money. Even Star Wars can’t stay around in theaters for ever, and it’s good to have December legs,especially as the Summer movie season gets more and more crowded.

          • May 16, 2017 at 12:22 am
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            The thing is, there’s a massive drop-off come January. That’s the double-edged sword here. Han Solo will be sticking to May for the reasons I listed here, and Episode IX will likely benefit from a shorter wait between movies and will ensure that Disney will get a larger amount of the Summer box office.

            – Pomojema

          • May 16, 2017 at 12:43 am
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            The good thing is that from now on, the China box office opening will be included in the worldwide opening cume, so Episode IX could have a chance at the largest worldwide opening, for whatever that’s worth.

      • May 15, 2017 at 10:30 pm
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        I’m not exactly sure why they moved the new Star Wars movies from a December release to a Spring release in the first place.

      • May 16, 2017 at 1:20 am
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        I agree, but they seem to crave that May slot for some reason.

        • May 16, 2017 at 3:44 am
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          It’s tradition, I guess. Don’t get me wrong, Star wars will do fine no matter where it is. But I still don’t like the idea that Star Wars could suffer a bit because of it (like how Episode IX is comes out just THREE WEEKS after Avengers 4).

          • May 16, 2017 at 4:55 am
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            Avengers…Star Wars…all the money is going to one place.

          • May 16, 2017 at 1:30 pm
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            Yeah,. but with two blockbusters right after another, people might feel that they have to chose one or the other to save up that expensive theater money. It might cause BOTH films to make less than they could have other wise. We’ll see.

          • May 16, 2017 at 7:18 pm
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            Yea, and the worst part is it’s an Avengers film. And to top it off, it’s the one that’s gonna drag the most attention cause it’s what the universe has been building up to. BUT I have faith in the force, and the force is with me.

          • May 16, 2017 at 9:34 pm
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            Well the movie is two years away. they have plenty of time to move it.

          • May 16, 2017 at 3:12 pm
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            I am with you. I prefer December.

  • May 15, 2017 at 8:34 pm
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    I won’t lie. I kind of hope the next Avatar movie does so bad that the rest of them never get made. I’m sick and tired of hearing about it nonstop for the past 7 years, seeing it getting delayed over and over and over. Any interest I had in a sequel was lost about 5 years ago.

    • May 15, 2017 at 8:37 pm
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      You should just try not seeing them. Just because you don’t like something doesn’t mean it shouldn’t exist.

    • May 15, 2017 at 10:07 pm
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      Agreed — I could not care less about Avatar. I hope it does terribly.

    • May 16, 2017 at 5:37 am
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      I wish I lived in your universe. I never “heard about it nonstop for the past seven years.”
      I wish I did. In fact, I wish the first sequel was released seven years ago.

  • May 15, 2017 at 8:52 pm
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    I really enjoyed Avatar, though I think I’m more interested in the advancement in 3D that might be made for the sequels rather than the story itself.

    Would they beat my interest in Star Wars, well that depends on how many Star Wars films are released between now and then. At the moment Avatar is a stand alone film with a possible sequel. Star Wars is 8 films up at the moment with three more in the works for certain (Episodes VIII & IX, and the Solo film). Avatar could be something fresh and new on the horizon tbh.

  • May 15, 2017 at 8:56 pm
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    Ang Lee shot his last film in 4k/120fps, hopefully Cameron will have 8k/120fps available when he finally shoots. Should at least look completely different to anything else.

    • May 15, 2017 at 9:47 pm
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      I think they’ll avoid doing that. Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk tanked pretty badly and only a few theaters were actually equipped to show the movie at its intended framerate – and because of the costs it took to film it in that style that only few got to see it in, the movie was much more expensive than it needed to be. Plus, The Hobbit tried that with a slightly slower framerate and people were not receptive to that, either.

      – Pomojema

  • May 15, 2017 at 9:35 pm
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    Writing stories is the biggest pain in the ass for Cameron? Did it really take that long to watch his copy of Dances With Wolves?

  • May 15, 2017 at 9:43 pm
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    I’m not sure if Avatar is being overestimated or underestimated. James Cameron has shown that he can make a lot of money with films that aren’t even that good, but I think he’s put too much of his creative energy into Avatar and he’s waited too long.

    • May 15, 2017 at 10:13 pm
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      Agreed – his stuff is generally visually amazing and delivered well, even with a simple storyline. I wonder if more people will be interested in watching to see if 3D is greatly improved further under him.

    • May 16, 2017 at 9:58 am
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      Agreed. When the first avatar came out I thought he was crazy to sink so much into marketing an unknown film and it made 2 billion. He’s waited so long I feel like avatar 2 has no shot…but then leave it to James Cameron go somehow take that and still make billions.

  • May 15, 2017 at 10:00 pm
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    Avatar = Dances with Smurfs!!!!

    The original Avatar was such a generic piece of crap it was sad. What I remember all the fervor being over was that it looked incredible. The 3D and the computer graphics were like nothing anyone had ever seen. I don’t remember anyone ever raving about the story or characters. The truth is, visuals in movies (3D, CGI, etc.) continue to improve and improve, even without Mr. Cameron. I don’t see any need for one Avatar sequel, let alone four!

    And I really can’t imagine a huge rush of incredibly excited people to get into Avatar World at Disney World.

    • May 15, 2017 at 10:09 pm
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      Dances with Smurfs OMG that was great ! 🙂

      • May 16, 2017 at 5:35 am
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        Where have you been? ‘Dances with smurfs’ has been used so often it is not even funny anymore.

        • May 16, 2017 at 6:05 am
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          I’ve never heard it before, thus it was funny to me.

        • May 17, 2017 at 6:58 am
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          Was SO funny !

    • May 16, 2017 at 5:04 pm
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      Actually, for better or for worse, I think Avatar fits well into the Disney universe and would be great for Disney parks and resorts (more so than Star Wars).

      • May 16, 2017 at 6:49 pm
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        You make a good point, in that the Avatar world actually does seem like a good fit for Disney. It could be a great fantasy world experience at Disney World. The problem, however, is the fact that everyone has pretty much forgotten about Avatar at this point and no one is really clamoring for the sequels.

  • May 15, 2017 at 10:06 pm
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    Avatar 2 won’t even begin to TOUCH the Force Awakens —- Avatar was as overrated as it gets and lacks any cultural-relevance in the year 2017. I hope James makes it, so I can watch it TANK under Star Wars.

    • May 16, 2017 at 5:38 am
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      Actually, its message is all that more meaningful in the year 2017 if you look at all the people who are in charge of protecting the environment these days…

      • May 16, 2017 at 6:00 am
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        Yes, but who needs that message told in such a one-dimensional fashion?

  • May 15, 2017 at 10:24 pm
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    The Avatar sequel should be at most 15 minutes long, in which that stupid planet is ruthlessly nuked from orbit.

    • May 15, 2017 at 10:47 pm
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      It’s the only way to be sure.

      • May 15, 2017 at 11:05 pm
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        Game over man!

    • May 16, 2017 at 1:50 am
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      You may fire when ready…

    • May 16, 2017 at 8:08 pm
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      This is an excellent tie-in opportunity! Have the First Order blow up the Avatar planet with their new super weapon!!!!

  • May 15, 2017 at 10:26 pm
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    Sure, I liked Avatar when I first saw it. You know, it was quite an experience seeing a two hour long sci-fi film in full 3D, the visuals were absolutely stunning. But I can’t say that about the story, it is at best mediocre. I remember watching it the second time, it was really underwhelming, even the visuals coudn’t get my interest. So I think making a sequel is pointless. It would be nice to see how 3D and CGI improved, but without a good story, it’s just won’t be enough, because in my opinion the technology hasn’t advanced that much, so the film won’t be able to be be a new breakthrough of some kind. Without a great story…it is just pointless.
    That being said, I think the Avatar sequels shouldn’t have any influence in the upcoming star wars films. And I think there shoudn’t be a big gap like another 10 years in between the sequel trilogy and the 4th one. It would be nice to see our heroes once again go on an adventure without wasting time on reintroducing everybody.

  • May 15, 2017 at 10:26 pm
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    Han Solo has a May Release date. Episode 9 has a May release date. Unless things change, it appears Star Wars is moving back to the summer. If that’s the case, Avatar doesn’t matter.

  • May 15, 2017 at 11:47 pm
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    Four sequels? He must have ties to ISIS.

  • May 16, 2017 at 12:57 am
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    The Avatar series is as irrelevant as the Pirates of The Carribean series in 2017 maybe even less so.

    • May 16, 2017 at 9:54 am
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      Less so. Regardless of quality, pirates is at least a multi-film franchise with each film in the billion dollar range and a new film on the way. The avatar “series” is just one (albeit high grossing) movie that everyone has forgotten about and no sequel in sight until 2020.

  • May 16, 2017 at 1:34 am
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    Avatar is a complete story. It dosen’t need any sequel at all… Of course they can easely come up with a different conflict, but it will probably feel incredibly forced.

    • May 16, 2017 at 3:33 am
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      James Cameron has suggested that the sequels will cover other aspects of Pandora and the other planets in the system, and I do think that there’s potential there. Convincing audiences that this ride is worth taking is what’s going to be difficult.

      – Pomojema

      • May 16, 2017 at 12:46 pm
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        I’ll definitely give it a try, since JC has never let me down so far.
        Although I’d rather watch the live action Akira adaptatio he proposed back then.

        • May 16, 2017 at 8:46 pm
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          You’re thinking of Gunnm/Battle Angel Alita.

          – Pomojema

          • May 16, 2017 at 10:47 pm
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            Yes, indeed, I stand corrected. It was Nolan that was rumored for the Akira adaptation.

          • May 17, 2017 at 2:59 am
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            Pretty sure that plans to produce that movie died as soon as it turned out that GITS was gonna flop.

            – Pomojema

  • May 16, 2017 at 1:59 am
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    Let it be delayed indefinitely. Avatar was a gussied up turd, albeit a financially successful turd.

  • May 16, 2017 at 2:00 am
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    Four sequels? Lol. Talk about putting the cart before the horse!

    • May 16, 2017 at 8:59 pm
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      Notice the 2 year gap between the middle films? Dollars to doughnuts that allows the studio to pull the plug if 2 and 3 don’t perform.

    • May 16, 2017 at 7:26 pm
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      You just made my day. 🙂 Thank you. LOL

  • May 16, 2017 at 3:03 am
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    Avatar sequels could be great, but they shoud have already start coming

  • May 16, 2017 at 3:07 am
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    Well written article. I agree with just about every point that was presented. While I’m not the type to obsess over when a movie is release because of it’s optimal “profitability window” (I’m more of a movie “Darwinist – the strongest will survive), I agree that any “Star Wars” property has the edge and any “Avatar” sequel has an uphill climb – at least in the Western cultures. But movies are money – and while I (and I think most of us here) focus on the artistic quality of the finished product – the bean-counters at the studios are zoomed in on profit margins for these films. The dust will settle, and the movies will be released when they should be. Besides, when release dates get changed, what can any of us here do but whine and complain like spoiled children? We’ll still be lined up opening day for the release, no matter what.

  • May 16, 2017 at 3:33 am
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    In all seriousness, I wonder if the Avatar sequels delayed are due to Cameron wanting to capture all the footage of the movies as 720-degree environments. This way, we would be able to experience the movies also in VR. This could explain the long delays, because he’s been working to perfect this technology.

  • May 16, 2017 at 4:41 am
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    A major problem with people not caring about Avatar anymore is that the rewatchability of the movie is horrible. It has not aged well. It was also a huge 3D hit, and as stated, relied HEAVILY on this “feature.” How many people still have or use a 3D TV? I know of none.
    Where is the tie-in material available for the movie? No games, no TV shows, no books, no nothin’. All we get is “updates” about sequels being pushed back and expanded into more movies Four sequels? Seriously? Kill Bill and Hobbit both suffered from being overdrawn out (way overdrawn) and turned into 2/3 movies and they both were far better than Avatar. If Fox wanted people to still be interested, they should have been doing something to keep it in close memory besides yearly updates on delayed releases of yet another franchise no one really asked for

    • May 16, 2017 at 8:57 pm
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      On the topic of Avatar related licensing stuff, I remember reading, while laughing hysterically, ardent fans claiming that Avatar’s lack of continued merchandising was a FEATURE not a bug! In short, the argument ran that, while horrible old Star Wars hates the Earth, and shits out landfills full of plastic doodads, somewhere making an Indian shed a single tear. Avatar on the other hand…AVATAR was just so eco-conscious that they CHOSE not to hurt Mother Gaia by selling tie in crap. They wouldn’t CHEAPEN the ‘message’ by doing that! Which is all very nice and warm and fuzzy….until you remember back to the release of the film and recall “oh, yeah…they DID sell a buttload of plastic Avatar crap at the concession stands, and put a bunch of Avatar crap on toy shelves, didn’t they? That shit was all clearanced within a month or so too, wasn’t it?” NOBODY WANTED IT, because the film has exactly 0 staying power in popular culture.

  • May 16, 2017 at 4:59 am
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    I’m real bummed Episode 9 will hit in May 2019… they will have to rush the film & that will hurt the quality.

    • May 18, 2017 at 1:33 am
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      Seriously? Chances are they’re already working on it. Relax.

      • May 18, 2017 at 3:01 am
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        Yes, filming doesn’t start till next January or February probably. So maybe filming completed June 2018. Then they will have less than a year for post. TFA & Rogue One both had a year & a half of post. In the trailers you could see changes made in the same scene (like the FO rally in TFA trailers 2 & 3). Too many movies are disposable these days… Star Wars used to take like 3 years to make, and it does show in many ways with Disney production values.

        + there is the whole thing about being excited to see the movie since the gap has always been 3 or so years in the past. I get that they planned this all ahead of time to a degree but Lucas spent 5 years writing the Story for the OT.

        I do have faith in Rian Johnson & I’m looking forwards to Trevarrow’s film coming out this June, that might be a good litmus test for what to expect… prior to these he’s really only got 2 films under his belt and one of them is garbage… so I am concerned.

  • May 16, 2017 at 8:31 am
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    Maybe he has had to rethink the story as Smurfs The Lost Tribe was too close for comfort

  • May 16, 2017 at 9:49 am
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    I’m actually intrigued to see a second avatar. I thought the first was a fine enough movie, though certainly nothing mind-blowing beyond the (at the time) stunning visuals. But I do not think the majority of people share my optimism. At this point all we’ve heard is delay after delay. This fill has the half-life 3 problem. either way, I don’t think the studio would be foolish enough to release it so close to Star Wars.

  • May 16, 2017 at 4:19 pm
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    I fell asleep during Avatar.

  • May 16, 2017 at 4:57 pm
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    Does anybody still care about Avatar at this point ?

  • May 16, 2017 at 8:58 pm
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    “Having two franchise movies of the same genre release so close to one another can prove to be disastrous, as seen with last year’s superhero underperformer X-Men: Apocalypse and outright bomb Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out Of The Shadows being released a week apart from one another”
    .
    I don’t buy this argument. WOM was just…plain AWFUL on both films, so I find it difficult to believe they ate each other’s lunches; people just did something else altogether. That said, I don’t think we’ve actually ever SEEN what two modern powerhouses going up against each other would look like.

  • May 16, 2017 at 11:55 pm
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    I saw Avatar in the theater and have not seen it since. I thought it was generic and predictable

  • May 17, 2017 at 5:37 am
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    People complain about Avatar but you can bet your ass they will be there front row & center for Avatar 2…..

  • May 17, 2017 at 7:23 am
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    I wonder if the Avatar sequels will actually be made at all? It doesn’t matter to me. I never viewed the first one in theaters. What I saw in it’s TV presentation confirmed my decision. Another question is….what could they possibly be about? The story had a definite end. Are they just going to bring back the ‘evil’ humans who want to dominate them? LOL….I think that would get old fairly fast.

  • May 17, 2017 at 5:38 pm
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    Avatar was Dances with Wolves but the savages were Blue instead. It was ok, but I doubt that more than one sequel will ever get made. Is there really a demand for so many Avatar movies? As far as I know there in no “Avatar Community” or Cult following of it. I’ll agree that Avatar was probably the only movie in the last 10 years to actually use the 3D effect properly but when you watch the movie in 2D, the action and acting become as flat as the screen.

  • May 17, 2017 at 7:55 pm
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    You guys are aware that they just made the huge Avatar park right? Of course sequels are on their way!

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