Until Avatar: Fire and Ash earned less than expected with a “mere”\u00a0$1.4 billion at the worldwide box office, James Cameron’s sci-fi franchise was no stranger to record-breaking success.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The threequel was undoubtedly still a hit, but Disney can’t ignore this sizeable\u00a0drop in ticket sales\u00a0from 2009’s Avatar ($2.9 billion) and 2022’s Avatar: The Way of Water ($2.3 billion). That’s why there’s now some uncertainty surrounding whether Avatar 4 will become a reality, something Cameron has repeatedly acknowledged.\u00a0<\/p>\n
If\u00a0the fourth chapter happens, then the House of Mouse might step in to keep a closer eye on Cameron, especially as\u00a0Avatar: Fire and Ash had a reported budget of $400 million. Up until now, though, it sounds like the filmmaker has enjoyed the type of freedom other franchises don’t necessarily get.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In an interview with\u00a0The Independent<\/a>\u00a0(via SFFGazette.com<\/a>),\u00a0Sam Worthington explained, “We’re unlike Marvel movies, in the sense of,\u00a0it feels like an independent movie when we make it. We don’t have outside pressures, or expectations from the press, or the studio, or the community. It doesn’t affect what we do. And that’s why we can take more risks.”<\/p>\n “It’s not like we have to get scenes completed by today or the studio is going to be upset. We just play and create. People don\u2019t understand that,” the actor added, pushing back on claims that Cameron is a tyrant on his film sets. “They think it\u2019s this big solid machine where Jim is the didactic director. And he\u2019s not. He\u2019s a painter.”<\/p>\n We don’t know how much profit Avatar: Fire and Ash made, or whether it was enough for Disney to greenlight an instalment that allows Cameron to continue that “independent movie” approach.<\/p>\n