James Cameron calls Avatar films ‘hideously expensive’, says he could wrap franchise after third film ‘if it’s not profitable’

James Cameron said that he had taken out a few parts from Avatar: The Way of Water and saved them for the third part, which he is sure will be made and released. Calling these films “hideously expensive”, Cameron said it was a “sketchy business” to make such expensive films even before the pandemic implying that it was more of a risk now. “At this point, we just have to play it out to see what happens. But what I know right now is: we’re delivering three hours of a pretty much insane experience,” he said. The director added, “The market could be telling us we’re done in three months, or we might be semi-done, meaning: ‘OK, let’s complete the story within movie three, and not go on endlessly’, if it’s just not profitable.”

Earlier, reports suggested that the runtime of Avatar: The Way of Water was 3 hours and 10 minutes and while no official sources have confirmed that yet, Cameron seems to be in agreement that the movie is rather long. “It’s a longer film, because there’s more characters to service. There’s more story to service,” he said.

Avatar: The Way of Water is releasing worldwide on December 16.