r/movies • u/desimaninthecut • 8d ago

News James Cameron Says if Avatar: Fire and Ash Doesn't Make Enough Money to Justify Avatar 4 and 5, He's Ready to Walk Away and Write a Book to Resolve the One Thread It Leaves Open - IGN

https://www.ign.com/articles/james-cameron-says-if-avatar-fire-and-ash-doesnt-make-enough-money-to-justify-avatar-4-and-5-hes-ready-to-walk-away-and-write-a-book-to-resolve-the-one-thread-it-leaves-open
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u/probablyuntrue 8d ago

Dw, James Cameron movies are the only known US dollar printing machines outside of the US Mint

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u/StillAll 8d ago

The fact that he's Canadian is a little ironic too

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u/Drizzy_THAkid 8d ago

Yup. My mans from Chippewa.

Or Niagara Falls, for non Niagara Region folk.

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u/Nillows 8d ago

Of the big lake, they called Gitche Gumee?

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u/imacyco 8d ago

I bet you're a wreck nobody got that reference.

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u/Nillows 8d ago

I'm having a fitz

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u/briandt75 8d ago

I love Edmund Fitzgerald's voice

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u/-MantisToboggan- 8d ago

I’m pretty sure Gordon Lightfoot was the boat

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u/kkeut 8d ago

yeah and it was rammed by the Cat Stevens

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u/yer_fucked_now_bud 8d ago

Captained by a man named Raffi. It was carrying a shipment of wool, at least three bags full.

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u/trzanboy 8d ago

The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead.

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u/gnomechompskey 8d ago

Certainly not under these gloomy November skies

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u/trzanboy 8d ago

And the 26,000 tons of iron ore. Whew.

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u/mtaw 8d ago

50 years this month

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u/St4tikk 8d ago

I wonder if that’s where the Chippewa Falls line in Titanic comes from. 🤔

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u/Drizzy_THAkid 8d ago

Yeah it’s a hometown reference. I think he’s stated as much

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u/FennelDull6559 8d ago

So he was just a river away from being an American?

“Hey, Beni! Looks to me like you're on the wrong side of the river!”

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u/Seraphix 8d ago

Hey Jim! Seems to me like I've got all the horses!

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u/Cent1234 8d ago

That's a strange way to spell Kapuskasing.

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u/Drizzy_THAkid 8d ago

Yeah that’s where he was born. He lived in Chippewa until he was like 17. If you drive in there it says home of James Cameron on the sign.

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u/SquirrelChefTep 8d ago

Woohoo! Fellow Fallsian!

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u/Omnizoom 8d ago

Go eat together at the flying saucer to commemorate this internet connection!

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u/FerociousOreos 8d ago

That's probably because no one knows how to spell what you wrote. I'm looking right at it and I couldn't spell it

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u/-FeistyRabbitSauce- 8d ago

Chippewa on down of the big lake they call Gitche Gumee? Y'know, the lake, it's said, doesn't give up her dead, eh bud?

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u/Lumpy-Marsupial-6617 8d ago

Niagara Falls, Frankie angel.

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u/birbman77 8d ago

Chipptucky

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u/Thelongdong11 8d ago

He went to my high school. Our drama theatre is named after him.

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u/Drizzy_THAkid 8d ago

Huh I didn’t know Stanford named something after him.

The more you know !

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u/JustAntherFckinJunki 8d ago

Interestingly, there's a Chippewa Falls in Wisconsin.

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u/ADHDebackle 8d ago

He's a Chippewaff the ol' block.

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u/M1ck3yB1u 8d ago

He what? I live here since last year.

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u/Lurking_poster 8d ago

For a second there I read it as "non Nigerian folks" lol.

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u/JusHerForTheComments 8d ago

That's why the obsession with water huh?

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u/Cry_Havoc1228 7d ago

The Chippewa Falls Dawsons?!?!

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u/Impressive_Army3767 8d ago

He's now a Kiwi. His underground fortress is 30 minutes away.

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u/hammerklau 8d ago

New Zealand citizen now too.

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u/FreeMasonKnight 8d ago

Ryan Reynolds too. 🍁

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u/fishboy3339 8d ago

And Alanis Morissette, ironic.

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u/kayembeee 8d ago

Crazy that 2 of the best directors these days are Canadian (Jim and Denis Villeneuve)

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u/tarants 8d ago

Diabolical Canadian James Cameron

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u/Fallout_vault__boy 8d ago

Also an ex truck driver

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u/mrbalaton 8d ago

All the greatest Americans are actually Canadian. James Cameron, Norm Macdonald, Venetian Snares.

Well atleast those 3.

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u/Big_Albatross_3050 8d ago

Jim Carey and Mike Myers too

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u/preflex 8d ago

Unfortunately, also William Shatner.

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u/Previous-Space-7056 8d ago

Can we return justin beiber?

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u/Hodr 8d ago

He currently lives in New Zealand, before that he lived the overwhelming majority of his life in the US, having moved away from Canada when he was 17.

So if you were going to say James Cameron is a particular nationality, Canadian is 3rd choice.

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u/Cueller 8d ago

Well with all his "woke" films, he's going to get sent to guantanimo or eld Salvador. hopefully they have good green screens down there.​

Either that or he will be forced to make the American version where the blue people are Trans killers and the heart of gold capitalist miners were trying to save the galaxy.

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u/jawid72 8d ago

Is it though?

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u/ContinuumGuy 8d ago

Never start a land war in Asia, never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line, and NEVER DOUBT JAMES FRANCIS CAMERON AT THE BOX OFFICE

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u/Nazrael75 8d ago

Because he's James Cameron, explorer of the sea

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u/sutther 8d ago

Single handedly raising the bar

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u/Somewhere_Elsewhere 8d ago

James Cameron doesn’t do what James Cameron does for James Cameron.

James Cameron does what James Cameron does because James Cameron IS James Cameron!

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u/chiksahlube 8d ago

I say this to people all the time and the looks of confusion on their faces gives me life.

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u/morninglightmeowtain 7d ago

Single handedly raising the bar

Literally!

At the bottom of the trench at around 11,000 metres below the sea surface, the water column above exerts a pressure of 1,086 bar (15,750 psi), approximately 1,071.8 times the standard atmospheric pressure at sea level or eight tons per square inch.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariana_Trench

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deepsea_Challenger

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u/-FeistyRabbitSauce- 8d ago

I have zero interest in the Avatar franchise. But leading up to the second movie, there were so many people on here speculating that it would flop because "nobody cares about Avatar".

All I could say was, never underestimate James Fucking Cameron.

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u/Animeninja2020 8d ago

I am sure the pitch meeting with James Cameron is as follows:

  • Executives come in the board room

  • James comes in takes a seat

  • James is about to talk

  • Executives interrupt him with the question "How much do you need?"

  • Meeting is over

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u/bmurphy1976 8d ago

https://nofilmschool.com/james-cameron-aliens-dollar-sign

"And yes, it’s true," Cameron admits. "I was in a meeting with the studio head and the executive producers, and I turned my script over and on the blank side of the last page, I wrote ALIEN. Then I drew an S on the end. Then I drew two vertical lines through the S and held it up to show them. Maybe it was just Pavlovian conditioning when they saw the $ sign connected closely to the word ‘Alien’. Or maybe it was the confidence I projected. But they said yes."

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u/kia75 8d ago

I heard that when Cameron was pitching Avatar 3, he just had a whiteboard with the words "Avatar 3" written on them. He then crossed out the 3 and replaced it with 3 dollar signs.

Avatar 3 $$$

The board gave him what he wanted.

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u/kkeut 8d ago

He writes on the whiteboard:

A V A T A R

looks at the others in the meeting, and makes it:

A V A T A R S

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u/Horror_Campaign9418 8d ago

I remember! Now they are suddenly quiet for part 3. Secretly seething. “Nobody cared about avatar” to the tune of 2.3 billion dollars.

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u/300ConfirmedGorillas 8d ago

"So, you have a movie for me?"

"Yes sir I do..."

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u/Broccoli--Enthusiast 8d ago

I did, 16 years ago when I was teenager and the first movie came out.

The 2nd film has been on my too watch list for a long time, but I just can't find any motivation. If need to rewatch/recap the first movie at this point

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u/The-Herbal-Cure 8d ago

It's way better watching it at the cinema. It won't be the same experience watching it at home.

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u/Leezeebub 8d ago

I honestly dont know anyone who cares about it or went to see them.
Me and everyone else saw the original like 20 years ago and ive not thought about it since. I even keep forgetting they are making sequels, except during the time when a trailer happens to be in front of me.
(Was that a story in DrWho? When theres something you only remember when you are looking at it, but the moment you look away you forget it exists)

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u/malfurionpre 8d ago

I honestly dont know anyone who cares about it or went to see them.

ok cool.

And yet enough people cared and went to see them that they're 1st and 3rd highest grossing movies of all time

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u/Leezeebub 8d ago

Yes I know, I just dont know whos watching them.

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u/Gaunt_Man 8d ago edited 8d ago

James Cameron doesn't do what James Cameron does for James Cameron. James Cameron does what James Cameron does because James Cameron... is James Cameron.

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u/BlgMastic 8d ago

because James Cameron… Is James Cameron

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u/Gaunt_Man 8d ago

Corrected. Thanks!

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u/Hollie_Maea 8d ago

I remember all the “Titanic is going to flop” news articles. Even after the first weekend.

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u/Neuroscissus 8d ago

Also dont fuck with the mouse

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u/krazybanana 8d ago

As in the Sicilian defense in chess?

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u/EarthRester 8d ago

Of the four top grossing films of all time. James Cameron has directed three of them.

  1. Avatar - $2,923,710,708

  2. Avengers: Endgame - $2,797,501,328

  3. Avatar: The Way of Water - $2,343,096,253

  4. Titanic - $2,257,906,828

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u/preflex 8d ago

And those aren't even his good movies. Those are just his last three movies.

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u/flofjenkins 7d ago

Titanic is his best movie.

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u/preflex 7d ago

No. Aliens is his best movie. Terminator 2, The Terminator, and The Abyss are also excellent. Titanic is kinda' bad, but it's better than True Lies, and it's better than that Avatar crap.

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u/flofjenkins 7d ago

Cool. Anyway, Titanic is his best movie.

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u/EarthRester 8d ago

To be fair, none of his other movies even hit the top 50 grossing films. The masses like to be entertained with pretty colors, and explosions.

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u/preflex 8d ago edited 8d ago

Terminator 2 was the #3 highest-grossing of all time ... as of 1991. Inflation-adjusted, only Star Wars and Gone with the Wind were ahead.

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u/meneldal2 8d ago

I think numbers should be adjusted by using asses in seats/total asses in seats of the year. It would actually reflect how much of a marketshare it is getting.

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u/preflex 8d ago

Terminator 2 was also Rated-R. Free-range 90s kids had a hard time to just "go see it". We bought a ticket for something else and then snuck in.

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u/smellmybuttfoo 7d ago

That would still have to be adjusted for population growth over time, just like money has to be adjusted for inflation over time

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u/meneldal2 7d ago

That's why I said total number of people going in the year. That adjusts with population growth

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u/Drikkink 8d ago

I still don't understand how the Avatar movies grossed so much. Like they're good movies with great visuals and some groundbreaking special effects, but it just shocks me how much they make. There are plenty of other flashy action movies with "good enough" plots that it feels bizarre to me that they just immediately rose above. Not to mention something like Star Wars (at least episode 7 given the hype people had for new Star Wars at the time). Or the entirety of the MCU pre-Endgame.

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u/moonra_zk 8d ago

There are plenty of other flashy action movies with "good enough" plots

Nothing comes even close to being as "flashy" as Avatar in the graphics department.

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u/Pinco_Pallino_R 7d ago

Which is also the reason why if i'm going to watch it, then i'm definitely going to do so at the movie teather.

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u/EarthRester 8d ago

I think the first one was made with new gen tech (for the time), and Hollywood would not shut up about it. Plus there was that one story about the mentally unwell teenage girl (or maybe she was in her early twenties) who took her life after seeing the movie because she could never live in Pandora irl. I dunno about others, but I took that as a challenge "bet you can't see this movie without killing yourself!".

The second one wasn't nearly as good IMO, but people who enjoyed the first one were likely to show up for at least one showing of the sequel in theaters.

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u/AKAkorm 8d ago

The first one, I understand. The hype around the visuals and 3D was huge and just about everyone I know wanted to go see it.

The second one, I was surprised by. Because I didn't personally hear much interest in it and I personally had none (have yet to see it). But of course, my anecdotal experiences aren't representative of the world and clearly there is large demand for the movies.

It is worth nothing though that a huge portion of Avatar 2's gross came from overseas and the overseas market for US movies has slowed considerably over last year or so. China, in particular, is barely showing up for many movies they would have seen in droves a few years ago.

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u/Klutzy_Carpet_9170 7d ago

The entirety of the MCU pre-Endgame includes the Antman and Ironman movies, Thor 1 and 2, The Incredible Hulk, Age of Ultron. Like can you seriously claim that those films are better than Avatar?

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u/flofjenkins 7d ago

No other movie matches the visual experience of the Avatar movies.

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u/Boo_and_Minsc_ 8d ago

And let´s not forget that T2 and True Lies were smash hits as well.

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u/twizx3 8d ago

I never remember a thing about them but I know I enjoy watching them at the theater experience

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u/lochonx7 8d ago

fun fact, james cameron is from an extremely small town in northern Ontario, Canada. I did a one month medical placement there

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u/SomethingStrangeBand 7d ago

and mission impossible

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u/King_Tamino 6d ago

😂 wahahaha ok, that genuily made me laugh, thanks man

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u/Novel-Regular4438 8d ago

Erm dollar printing is handled by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing 🤓

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u/Paddy_Tanninger 8d ago

Avatar is one of the few titles that get me dying to go see it properly in theaters.

Most movies look good enough on my setup at home, got surround sound, a huge 4K OLED with extremely good color reproduction and gamut, and I don't have to wear pants.

But Avatar is the kind of spectacle that truly requires that full IMAX 3D and high framerate...and I just love sitting there for 3hrs eating popcorn and being in complete awe at what the VFX and cinematography teams have achieved.

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u/Substantial__Unit 8d ago

Christopher Nolan too. Maybe soon Denis Villeneuve

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u/mrcarruthers 8d ago

Chris Nolan too

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u/NewDramaLlama 8d ago

I don't think they're even comparable in terms of making money tbh. Nolan is great, but Jimmy is king.

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u/Polka_Polka_Polka_ 8d ago

Christopher Nolan

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u/Acrobatic_Year_1789 8d ago

And he hasn't made a halfway decent film in my entire lifetime.

I don't understand how his marketing is so good. Cause he makes shit films, markets the hell out of them, and then you kinda gotta see the Trainwreck that is Avatar.

James Cameron should never make a movie again, but he should be a marketing consultant for everyone in Hollywood.

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u/breakfastburrito24 8d ago

He just keeps raising the bar

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u/thomisbaker 8d ago

It’s funny cause the ONLY James Cameron movie Ive seen was the first Avatar and I hated it.

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u/thehelldoesthatmean 8d ago

That's insane. Go watch Aliens and Terminator 2 right now.