James Cameron Says 'Avengers: Endgame' Beating His Box Office Record Gives Him Hope For His 'Avatar' Sequels

Director James Cameron held the top spot on the box office charts for more than twenty years, first with 1997's Titanic and then overtaking his own record with 2009's Avatar. But that record was toppled earlier this year by Avengers: Endgame, and while Cameron sent a congratulatory message to Marvel Studios after Endgame surpassed Avatar, some have wondered how he really felt about losing that top spot after so many years.

Turns out he's OK with it, largely because he views it as a good sign for the possibilities of Avatar 2. Read some of the highlights from this new James Cameron reaction below.

In an interview with Deadline, the filmmaker behind some of the biggest movies in history explains how he really feels about being leap-frogged by a Marvel movie at the box office.

"It gives me a lot of hope. Avengers: Endgame is demonstrable proof that people will still go to movie theaters. The thing that scared me most about making Avatar 2 and Avatar 3 was that the market might have shifted so much that it simply was no longer possible to get people that excited about going and sitting in a dark room with a bunch of strangers to watch something...

Will Avatar 2 and 3 be able to create that kind of success in the zeitgeist? Who knows. We're trying. Maybe we do, maybe we don't, but the point is, it's still possible."

And while Cameron is clearly a fan of crafting art for the theatrical experience, he's not ruling out creating something for a streaming service like Netflix at some point in the future:

"I'm just glad it still exists because I'm all about the big screen. Not that I wouldn't do something for streaming where you can get into the characters in a different way but what I love the most to do is to create that completely kind of subsuming experience where you turn off your phone and you engage. You as an audience member engage for two hours or two and a half hours, whatever it is. And that still exists!"

I wonder if there's a Avatar 4 and 5 were filming last October, though Cameron previously said that those later sequels aren't even guaranteed if Avatar 3 and 4 don't perform well enough. If that happens, I wonder if we could possibly see the final two Avatar movies go directly to Disney+? Or maybe if he wants to continue telling stories in the Avatar universe, will we see him write or direct a full-blown Avatar streaming series? I suppose it all depends how people react to the sequels, the first of which will be arriving twelve years after the original debuted in theaters.

Avatar 2 lands on December 17, 2021, followed by Avatar 3 on December 22, 2023 and then (maybe) Avatar 4 on December 19, 2025 and Avatar 5 on December 17, 2027.