This article has been imported from chorus.fm for discussion. All of the forum rules still apply. James Cameron is apparently developing four Avatar sequels, the first coming Christmas of 2018. The filmmaker discussed the many ways in which he is expanding the world — a theme park with Disney in in the works, and his company has signed a deal with Dark Horse Comics for graphic novel spin-offs — but the movies themselves are obviously the biggest component. The Avatar sequels have been a moving target since he first announced he was working on them, and Cameron has since assembled what amounts to a screenwriting superteam to break the story for the various films. As it stands, the second film in the series will be coming out in the holiday season of 2018, with the subsequent films arriving in 2020, 2022, and 2023. Expand - View Original
4? Ha. Hey James worry about about making avatar 2. Why are you wasting our time talking about 2020 and 2022.
I saw a post once either on Reddit or Tumblr talking about how weird of an anomaly Avatar is. It's one of the highest grossing movies of all time but it left like....no cultural footprint lmao
To be fair, idk how much marketing it had on it to build it into a brand. When you look at a series like Star Wars, there was a ton of effort into making it into a brand - clothes, toys, later on video games, tv shows, etc. With all of that marketing and added "content" it built the series into a cultural icon and had it grow into something more than a movie. Maybe I didn't pay attention, but aside from a single video game (that wasn't very good) I don't think Avatar had that kind of marketing. Plus, making one movie then going silent on any possible for sequels didn't help it have a lasting impression.
I haven't actively avoided it or anything, I just have never gotten around to seeing it. I missed seeing it in theaters and since then I've always had movies/shows that I wanted to catch up on that interested me more than Avatar. Maybe one of these nights I'll give it a go!
Yep in the same boat, and figured at the least, I should probably at least once say I've seen one of the highest grossing films of all time.
On the /Film podcast, they have a running theme about that haha. One of the hosts advocates that it is a culturally relevant film and the other two just laugh it off. I'm sure it's gonna come up on next week's episode with this news. What a weird spot for Cameron to be in. I can't think of anyone who's highly anticipating this, yet construction is well underway on a whole portion of Disney's Animal Kingdom for this property, which I'm sure is gonna be awesome to experience. But will stuff like that be enough to rekindle the interest of the greater public who barely follows movies?
I guess it makes sense to make more movies...but has the world really been clamouring for a sequel, let alone FOUR NEW FILMS??!
Never have understood the Avatar hate. It isn't without flaws, but those which it carries don't qualify it to be a bad film IMO. Also worth noting that I was stoned as hell when seeing this in theatres in 3D and had a blast lol
I feel like every year a movie gets added and the years get pushed back. A few years back it was 2016/17/18 or something like that. Guess I could be remembering wrong.
The funny thing is that there have been at least two or three articles about that, most of them from around when the movie turned five. It's just a film that very few people seem to care about, at least in a positive way. I personally think that's a sign of how vital the hype and the big screen experience were to that movie. Branding and merchandising was only one part of it, though. I think the articles also looked at the film's legacy in other terms. Like, you don't see it on cable TV all the time; most people couldn't tell you the name of any of the characters; there are no iconic quotes; it didn't inspire a bunch of rip-offs; it isn't on the IMDB Top 250; no one is really clamoring for a sequel. Obviously none of those things alone mean it's a failure, and some of them are admittedly trivial (though, that doesn't mean they aren't significant in determining the cultural footprint of the movie), but it's sort of interesting that the number one movie of all time hasn't been more influential. If you want to read the articles, they're pretty interesting: Five Years Ago, 'Avatar' Grossed $2.7 Billion But Left No Pop Culture Footprint Why ‘Avatar’ Has Been Forgotten Just Five Years Later Avatar’s rapid rise, sudden downfall, and endless Billy Jack connections
All very valid points and I completely agree at how strange it is at the lack of influence the movie had for how much it grossed. Branding and merchandise were the first things that came to my mind about a contribution to it's lack of popularity but it's definitely more than that. A quick look at those articles and they are pretty interesting also, I'll take a deeper look into them.