Avatar sequels will cost $1 Billion as filming gets underway

After months, even years of speculation, planning and scheduling. The four sequels to James Cameron’s Avatar are finally and officially in production, and it’s going to cost $1 Billion…

Now to say this is a ‘gamble’ would be a wild understatement. While the first Avatar is still by far the highest grossing movie ever made at $2.7 Billion worldwide. 20th Century Fox is trusting the world with 4 subsequent sequels that won’t hit cinemas until 2020, that’s 11 years after the first movie. It’s a big bet.

With a production budget of $1 Billion, that’s around $250 Million for each film, which isn’t that much overall, that’s the same budget for Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Where the gamble comes in is the returns for the for each film, while Avatar 2 and Avatar 3 are likely to make a profit,  are audiences still going to be interested enough for Avatar 4 and Avatar 5?

They’d have to make a box office return of at least £400 million considering the money for marketing etc. While it’s doable it’s no guarantee in the slightest. Frankly, no one’s been asking for an Avatar sequel let alone Avatar sequels, nevertheless, James Cameron has always made entertaining movies as well as the highest grossing movies. There’s clearly a massive amount of trust at play here.

All the sequels will be shot at once with a returning cast of Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver and Stephen Lang. The release dates are below:

Avatar 2 – December 18th, 2020

Avatar 3 – December 17th, 2021

Avatar 4 – December 20, 2021

Avatar 5 – December 19th, 2025