James Cameron Celebrates Avatar 2 Nearing $2 Billion Box Office by Slamming Streaming Services

By Jenna Anderson

It has been just a matter of weeks since Avatar: The Way of Water arrived in theaters, but it has already had an astronomically good performance at the box office. At the time of this writing, the James Cameron-helmed sequel has become the seventh-highest grossing movie of all time, with $1.708 billion at the global box office. In a recent interview with Variety on the red carpet of the 2023 Golden Globes, Cameron addressed the film's box office success — and used it as an opportunity to argue that the theatrical moviegoing experience will ultimately reign supreme over the recent flux of streaming services.

"I'm not thinking of it in those terms," Cameron said when told the stat. "I'm thinking of it in the terms of we're going back to theaters around the world. They're even going back to theaters in China where they're having this big COVID surge. We're saying as a society, 'We need this! We need to go to theaters.' Enough with the streaming already! I'm tired of sitting on my ass."

What is Avatar 2 about?

Set more than a decade after the events of the first film, Avatar: The Way of Water begins to tell the story of the Sully family, the trouble that follows them, the lengths they go to keep each other safe, the battles they fight to stay alive, and the tragedies they endure. The film will see the return of Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Giovanni Ribisi, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Joel David Moore, Dileep Rao, CCH Pounder, and Matt Gerald. New cast members include Kate Winslet, Cliff Curtis, Edie Falco, Brendan Cowell, Michelle Yeoh, Jemaine Clement, Oona Chaplin, David Thewlis, and CJ Jones.

"The goal is to tell an extremely compelling story on an emotional basis," Cameron previously shared with Total Film about The Way of Water. "I would say the emphasis in the new film is more on character, more on story, more on relationships, more on emotion. 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."

What do you think of James Cameron's newest comments about Avatar: The Way of Water's box office success? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

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