• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Avatar sequels preemptive damage control by Cameron himself.

ManaByte

Member
Blame it on the 'rona. It's sucks that Cameron and his acolytes will have a scapegoat when the sequels bomb.
https://www.giantfreakinrobot.com/ent/james-cameron-avatar-pandemic.html
“The big issue is: Are we going to make any damn money?” Cameron muses. “Big, expensive films have got to make a lot of money. We’re in a new world post-COVID, post-streaming. Maybe those [box office] numbers will never be seen again. Who knows? It’s all a big roll of the dice.”

That applies to every movie. Don't see why it's preemptive Avatar damage control. No movie is making pre-COVID money anymore.
 

Genti23

Banned
The story and characters weren't enough to excite viewers and make them desperate to see a further instalment in the series. I'm sure people will turn up but a lot of other people will stay away if the reviews say the storyline, characters and dialogue are as weak as the first movie.
 

Days like these...

Have a Blessed Day
The story and characters weren't enough to excite viewers and make them desperate to see a further instalment in the series. I'm sure people will turn up but a lot of other people will stay away if the reviews say the storyline, characters and dialogue are as weak as the first movie.
Agreed, unfortunately Cameron fans will blame the 'rona and not the film.
 

Mr Hyde

Member
Why wouldn't he blame it on Corona? The virus has practically killed the cinemas. Streaming is in much more high demand than going to the theater. And people have been predicting Cameron's films to bomb as far back as Titanic. See how well that went.
 

12Goblins

Lil’ Gobbie
op not aware of the devasting effects that the pandemic has had on an already struggling movie business industry I guess
 
Last edited:

poppabk

Cheeks Spread for Digital Only Future
op not aware of the devasting effects that the pandemic has had on an already struggling movie business industry I guess
I think people are afraid that Covid is gonna negate their 'I told you so' card.
I don't think the Avatar movie really made the case for one sequel, nevermind the ridiculous number we might get, but people just need to accept that their bomba predictions can now only be 'inevitable due to Covid' or false.
PS I was so right about the Hobbit not being enough material for 3 movies, bow down before my prognostication powers!
 
Last edited:

bitbydeath

Gold Member
Will be an interesting one to watch for sure. (Not the movie but the interest of others since the first did well off the back of 3D alone.)
 

sinnergy

Member
Well everything changed since COVID, and Avatar movies (Cameron movies) are Cinema movies after all , so he has a point .
 

Fbh

Member
He isn't necessarily wrong, if movie theaters continue dying/struggling and everything moves to streaming there might no longer be a place for these hyper expensive movies to make money. Even as big as Netflix/Amazon are, all their movies feel like direct to DVD stuff compared to even the original 12 year old avatar. (I mean in production values, it's not hard to have better writing).


Than again James had 10 fucking years of no Covid to release a sequel.
 

Kraz

Banned
Someone hinting they want a new word of the day calendar for christmas.
Multisyllabic words are indeed awesome, such as describing a provocative anti-intellectual strawmen fashioned from some injury too and to slight.
 

Pagusas

Elden Member
Sometimes I feel like i'm the only one that enjoyed a movie that made over a billion at the box office.

I wouldn't be surprised, I feel like it was more of a new amusing carnival ride than something with actual substance and longevity
 

NickFire

Member
I would argue that if these movies bomb at the box office, it has as much to do with how long it took to make them as Covid, and probably more.

I genuinely wonder if even 10% of all people who saw it remember more than "it had blue people and was in 3d." I know I don't.
 

EviLore

Expansive Ellipses
Staff Member
He wanted to transform the theater experience with technological advancement as part of these releases. That's not going to be feasible while COVID hangs in the air and the market has shifted to streaming.
 

Kilau

Gold Member
I wouldn't be surprised, I feel like it was more of a new amusing carnival ride than something with actual substance and longevity
It was certainly more spectacle than anything but I like it. I didn't even see it in the theater.
 

Aggelos

Member
Probably they won't make the financial impact that Avatar 1 originally made. But they're gonna be some pretty great visual spectacle. Now, what will happen after Avatar 2 and 3, that's anyone's guess.
The films cost ginormous amounts of dough to make, so with the COVID pandemic going on, probably they won't see the day of light.













09tQoNv.jpg
 
Last edited:

BossLackey

Gold Member
I think people aren't interested because you're taking twenty years to bludgeon us with four more of these fucking movies, James. Maybe take all of that time and effort and work out an actually compelling script for *one* solid sequel.

This is what I don't understand about his approach. Just make a good sequel instead of spreading yourself thin and worrying about movies that might not even happen.
 
I trust Cameron. He is an actual genius. Not some Hollywood hack. People betting his movie will bomb are being silly.

At the very worst, it will still be better that your average popcorn flick.
 

T8SC

Gold Member
The problem here, is people basically wishing hate on these sequels and in doing so, failing to see the larger picture.

Movies are not making much money these days, the Avatar sequels will most likely also succumb to that. But remember this, the less money movies make, the less expensive blockbusters we'll receive. So hate away, we'll look back at this in 5 years when you're sick of the each cheap ass Netflix series and Cameron (and others) has retired with his millions because he's not interested in making mass produced shite.
 

Days like these...

Have a Blessed Day
The problem here, is people basically wishing hate on these sequels and in doing so, failing to see the larger picture.

Movies are not making much money these days, the Avatar sequels will most likely also succumb to that. But remember this, the less money movies make, the less expensive blockbusters we'll receive. So hate away, we'll look back at this in 5 years when you're sick of the each cheap ass Netflix series and Cameron (and others) has retired with his millions because he's not interested in making mass produced shite.
Should we hope all films succeed for the sake of saving cinema or just his? I'll never understand this sentiment of "Ooh Cameron's films make a trillion dollars let me rub one out!"
 
The fact that the first movie was really built around being a theater experience gives credence to this, but even if COVID didn't happen I don't think any of the sequels would be as big as the first movie.

I'm sure I'll watch whatever sequels come out eventually, it just not something that excites me.
 

T8SC

Gold Member
I'm OK with that if it brings back variety to the cinema and not more overbloated CGI themepark ride movies that we are getting.

Totally agree. Expensive doesn't always mean CGI, I should've clarified. Good directors & actors generally cost more, as do the movie sets. Yes you can make a court room drama on a small budget but something like Saving Private Ryan, Interstellar or Lord of the Rings generally cost upwards of $100-150m (Not including marketing/promotions). If movies are only bringing in $250m then that budget will be cut and we could lose the variety on top of everything else.
 

I_D

Member
The first movie had about as average of a plot as you can get.
It wasn't terrible by any means; but it certainly wasn't great by any means, either.


If you remember back to before Avatar 1, one of the movie's main drawing-points was the technology involved. It was supposed to revolutionize CGI, and bring in a new era of 3D movies. It was supposed to be as big of an upgrade as you can get, in terms of the movie theater experience.
Another huge selling-point was that it was from the director of Titanic and Terminator. The actual storyline of the movie was really not that involved, in terms of the marketing (and, I think, for good reason).


Now that we know the storyline is pretty boring, and the visuals aren't actually that crazy, and Cameron's cinematography skills aren't quite what they used to be... I'm not sure how the sequels will turn out.
I suspect the advertising and hype will cause Avatwo to do quite well. But I also suspect that, with the sequel, it will become apparent that this series isn't all that compelling. So, for the sequels beyond, we'll see....


The concept art they've released so far looks downright laughable.
The 'screencap'/'art' in the same page of this same thread looks even worse than laughable.


I do actually hope the series does well. I feel like Avatar has a lot of potential, if they actually go crazy with it and develop a whole, intricate plot-line.
I'm just, realistically-speaking, not sure if that's a feasible objective for this series. I don't know the the powers-that-be have the skills/time/effort/interest to actually make this something special.
 

TheInfamousKira

Reseterror Resettler
Will OG Avatar even stand up visually to the sequels by the time they finally come out? I forgot this series was even a goal. The first time I heard about multiple sequels, I think it was a RLM video, and I automatically thought it was a skit and they were just taking the piss out of Cameron. Much to my surprise...
 

nush

Member
Are general audiences supposed to be excited by this,

5XePCof.jpg


When you now have this at home and real-time? ( I looked for an equivalent screenshot)

GxTlugQ.png


These sequels have taken so long to get made that the tech is outdated.
 
Top Bottom