20th Century Studios
I’ve been working at BroBible for over three years now, and during the course of those three years, I’ve spent quite a lot of time lamenting the success and legacy of James Cameron’s Avatar.
Over the years, I’ve certainly seen the “Avatar actually blows” coalition grow stronger and stronger, especially as the release of the sequel (finally!) nears. Plus, now that we’ve since entered the era of the comic book movie, there have been sections of the film industry and culture that have wondered if Avatar would be able to maintain its relevance 13 years after the original hit theaters.
Even James Cameron himself — the man behind Avatar, Titanic, and Terminator 2 — had his doubts, as the legendary director recently admitted that he was “concerned” about whether or not people still cared about the franchise. That worry, though, ultimately subsided when the first teaser trailer for the film was released and racked up nearly 150 million views in a day.
James Cameron says he was “concerned” about whether or not people still cared about Avatar prior to the release of the first teaser for The Way of the Water
“I was a little concerned that I had stretched the tether too far, in our fast-paced, modern world, with ‘Avatar 2’ coming in 12 years later,” Cameron told The New York Times in a recent interview.
“Right until we dropped the teaser trailer, and we got 148 million views in 24 hours. There’s that scarce seen but wondered at principle, which is, ‘Wow, we haven’t seen that in a long time, but I remember how cool it was back then.’ Does that play in our favor? I don’t know. I guess we’re going to find out.”
While I’m certainly not stupid to bet enough James Cameron — Avatar 2, in all likelihood, will gross a billion dollars worldwide — I will just say that trailer views doesn’t necessarily translate to cultural relevance. OF COURSE people are curious enough to check out the trailer. But how many people did you actually see talking about it? It should also be mentioned that the trailer only has 25 million views on YouTube, which pales in comparison to some MCU trailers or even the trailer for The Batman.
Avatar: The Way of the Water is currently scheduled to hit theaters in the United States on December 16, 2022. In addition to returning stars Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Stephen Lang, Giovanni Ribisi, and Sigourney Weaver, the Avatar sequel also stars Kate Winslet, Cliff Curtis, Edie Falco, Jemaine Clement, Michelle Yeoh, Brendan Cowell, Oona Chaplin, CJ Jones, and Vin Diesel.
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