Grossing more than $5 billion while producing just 2 movies is no easy task and anyone can guess who was able to achieve this.
Produced by one of the most respected directors, James Francis Cameron, who is known for his works such as Titanic, Terminator 2, and Aliens, Avatar is the highest-grossing movie of all time. Out of the five highest-grossing movies of all time, three of them were created by him. This is clear evidence of how great he is at creating masterpieces.
The Avatar series was no different from his other works. The first movie of the Avatar series grossed the $1 Billion mark in just 19 days of its worldwide release which isn’t the fastest but if we keep in mind that it was released in 2009 then it is a huge achievement.
Not only movies but the Avatar series has also been adapted into other media such as comic books and video games. It has also created a hugely loyal fanbase that will follow the series to its end with the help of a single movie.
What is Avatar about?
The plot of the movie takes place more than 100 years from now. Humans are mining a very hard-to-obtain item called unobtanium. Such a great naming sense! This item is found on a moon planet called Pandora of Alpha Centauri where lives a native tribe called Na’vi. They are classified as blue creatures with similar structures to humans but a lot stronger than us.
To secretly maintain contact with the tribes and know about them, humans use a way to genetically create a similar body and operate it with the help of a smart brain. One of the humans who went in that way was Jake Sully who later starts having a dilemma about whose side he is on.
Why was the movie successful?
The movie was a huge success in the film industry. Many factors played in its success but the use of advanced technology to create CGI, motion capture, and add 3D effects was a major aspect used to market the movie.
All of these technologies were there for years before the movie came, don’t get me wrong but Avatar took it to a whole new level and fully capitalized on it. Also, it had the themes of environmentalism and imperialism which made it all the better.
This way it went on to earn the title of the highest-grossing movie of all time and yet no one has been able to overtake it. Not even Marvel’s final climax to its 10 years’ worth of world-building.
Every Avatar movie in order:
Most people around the world already have seen or at least heard about the movie. If you are looking forward to watching it. Here is the correct way of getting into the Avatar franchise.
Avatar (2009)
The run starts with the 2009’s original Avatar movie. Release on 18th December 2009, Avatar originally planned to start producing a lot earlier but the technologies at that time were not good enough to produce the movie properly. Yes, the movie had to literally wait for technologies to catch up to its ideas so that it could start production.
The director of the movie was no beginner either as he had already created the highest-grossing movie worldwide in 1997 Titanic. The critics were very critical of the movie’s use of CGI in it since the concept of using it for the whole showtime was still new. They said it would turn out to be a flop but the opposite happened.
The story of the movie is the same as the plot of the movie I explained above. Jake Sully, an ex-Marine soldier who was now in the body of a genetically engineered Na’vi, is forced to choose two paths which are his loyalty to humans or his growing connection to the alien tribes.
It contains very good visuals that still feel like the movie was made recently and not almost 20 years ago. The next movie to watch after the original 2009’s Avatar is the recently released movie, Avatar: The Way of the Water.
Avatar: The Way of Water
Picking up the story of the original Avatar movie is 2022’s Avatar: The Way of Water. Released on 16th December 2022, Avatar: The Way of Water was backed up with huge expectations especially due to the success of its predecessor.
The $2 billion mark at the box office was a must for the movie and the producers were very positive about it which is evident in the movie’s budget of almost half a billion dollars. It featured previous casts such as Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, and Stephen Lang and also new ones such as Sigourney Weaver, Kate Winslet, and Cliff Curtis.
The movie continues the story after several years after the events of the first movie. Jake Sully has already established himself as the respected leader of the Omaticaya tribes. This movie goes deeper into the planet of Pandora and shows its geography outside of the limit in the first movie.
“Avatar: The Way of Water”, as the name suggests, introduces us to a new tribe in Pandora who are called Metkayina, a water-dwelling tribe. They are similar to the forest-dwelling tribe that Jake is from but have larger arms and body that is more suitable for living underwater. Jake and his family seek asylum in the Metkayina’s place to be safe from the humans.
It also showed us just how diverse the world of Avatar was really by introducing us to different creatures such as Tulkan, Skimwings, and more.
The movie did not disappoint the expectation it was forced upon as it was able to gross more than $2 billion in less than 40 days. This made it the only movie to cross the $2 billion mark after the pandemic and I believe it will be holding on to the title for a while now.
Only two Avatar movies have made it to the theatres up to now but there are sequels already planned and in production. The ones that are already planned are listed below.
Future Avatar movies in order:
Avatar 3
Originally planned to release in 2015 after its announcement, Avatar 3 suffered with years of delay and the reason was similar to the delay of the 2009’s Avatar movie which was lack of required technology for Avatar 2.
Since most of the scenes in Avatar: The Way of Water required underwater motion capture which was very hard to achieve, Avatar 3 also suffered multiple delays due to it. The movie is in production currently and has also already finished its shooting for 2 years now in late 2020.
Avatar 3 is expected to follow the trend of Avatar movies to release at the end of the year and will be
Avatar 4
After the huge success of the sequel movie, Avatar: The Way of Water, James Cameron who is the director of Avatar movies announced that the upcoming movie, Avatar 3, will be followed with a sequel in 2026.
There isn’t much news on what the story is going to be about which makes sense since it is supposed to release after 3 years. The only thing that is announced is that the movie will definitely release on December 18, 2026, which may, however, change in the upcoming days.
Avatar 5
There aren’t many directors announcing 3 different sequels at once but this just shows how confident Cameron is with the success of his work. The movie was announced together with Avatar 4 on January 2023 after the success of Avatar: The Way of Water.
The movie was announced to release 2 years after Avatar 4 on December 2028 and since it is planned to release after 5 years, it is no surprise that nothing except the movie’s announcement has been announced.
Also, there is Avatar 6– I’m just kidding. That is all the Avatar movies that have been announced to the public.
How many movies does Avatar have?
There are two Avatar movies that have been out in theatres which are Avatar(2009) and Avatar: The Way of Water (2022). Another movie Avatar 3 has completed shooting and is in production.
Two more titles, Avatar 4 and Avatar 5 have been announced to be released later. So, there altogether 5 Avatar movies.
In what order to watch Avatar?
Avatar(2009)
Avatar: The Way of Water(2022)
Avatar 3(2024)
Avatar 4(2026)
Avatar 5(2028)
