James Cameron has another movie on the horizon, and it’s the highly anticipated Avatar: Fire and Ash. One of the biggest titles on the 2025 movie schedule, Cameron’s sci-fi threequel is earning attention not just for the stellar 3D effects it boasts but also because of the financial elements at play. A lot has been reported about how much the movie supposedly costs to make. Now, Cameron himself is speaking out after being asked and, when that happened, he dropped a few F-bombs.
What’s evident upon even seeing a snippet of footage from one of the Avatar films is that they’re technical achievements, and it costs quite a bit of money to make such blockbusters. As of late, it’s been alleged that Fire and Ash has a production budget of $400 million, though that hasn’t been formally verified by Bob Iger or other Disney execs. James Cameron was faced with some finance-related questions recently and quipped that those queries were for Iger. Still, Cameron offered up this take on The Town with Matthew Belloni podcast:
It is one metric fuck ton of money, which means we have to make two metric fuck tons of money to make a profit. 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?
While promoting this latest film, Cameron has been notably conservative when discussing the future of the Avatar franchise, for which he’s plotted two more movies. Despite those plans, the Oscar-winning filmmaker is cognizant of the fact that blockbusters are making less money at the box office and that production costs are increasing. What Cameron ideally wants is to continue telling stories about Pandora and the Na’vi but do so in a cost-effective way.
This, of course, all begs one question: what will James Cameron do with his franchise if Fire and Ash doesn’t make enough money. Well, he told CinemaBlend that he’s ready to make the fourth and fifth films. Cameron also told Matthew Belloni, however, that should the box office returns not work in his favor this time, he’s prepared to conclude the story of Jake Sully and his family:
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 10 years…. Yeah, absolutely, sure. If this is where it ends, cool.
Cameron also said he could write a book in under to wrap up lingering plot threads, which seems like a viable option as well. Still, as a fan, I’d love to see the other two films produced as Cameron would ideally prefer. As of late, box office analysts have been forecasting what kind of haul Cameron’s new movie will pull in. We ultimately can’t say what that final cume will be, at this point, but it is worth mentioning that the Canadian filmmaker’s movies have historically had legs at the movie theaters. That’s a big reason why the first two Avatar movies are two of the Top 3 highest-grossing films of all time.
Time will tell if Disney’s latest investment in James Cameron’s long-running franchise will pay off. Fans can check out (the reportedly pricey) Avatar: Fire and Ash when it opens in theaters on December 19. In the meantime, fans can prepare for the upcoming action movie by streaming the first two films in the series using a Disney+ subscription.
