James Cameron Explains Why the Film is Over Three Hours Long, Says Film’s Performance Will Impact Franchise

James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water is set to have a runtime of over three hours. The director says that the film needs to be long to do explore the characters and their relationships.

According to him, the first film didn’t spend much time on these aspects, and Cameron intends to avoid that this time around. Avatar The Way of Water will be more about the people in the film, their emotions, and their connections with each other.

Speaking to GamesRadar, Cameron said: “We didn’t spend as much time on relationship and emotion in the first film as we do in the second film, and it’s a longer film because there’s more characters to service. There’s more story to service.”

If the film flops at the box office, Cameron says he wouldn’t keep beating a dead horse. The director will continue the Avatar franchise if the audience wants more; otherwise, the series will see its final instalment in the third film and will shut shop for good.

Cameron told /Film that the world is different now with the advent of streaming, and if a film is good, people will go to the cinemas to experience it:

“The market could be telling us we’re done in three months, or we might be semi-done, meaning: ‘Okay, let’s complete the story within movie three, and not go on endlessly,’ if it’s just not profitable… We’re in a different world now than we were when I wrote this stuff, even. It’s the one-two punch – the pandemic and streaming. Or, conversely, maybe we’ll remind people what going to the theatre is all about. This film definitely does that. The question is: how many people give a s*** now?”

The first Avatar film became the first ever to earn $2.9 billion at the global box office. This happened after the film saw a re-release that clocked in $30 million worldwide. Cameron also insists that young people should watch Avatar on the big screen, otherwise they “really haven’t seen it.”