James Cameron announces production has begun on Avatar 4 and 5

With the news that Cameron's fourth and fifth Avatar sequels have moved into production, its troubling that Hollywood is putting so much money and hope into building multi-film franchises based on a potential 'one-off' success of an original flick

'Avatar' (20th Century Fox/Lightstorm Entertainment)

by Jack Linsdell

Today, in an interview with Alien and Avatar star Sigourney Weaver, the actress revealed that production on 'Avatar 4' and 'Avatar 5' (or whatever they end up being called) have entered production already. This comes as the sequel to James Cameron's $2+ billion grossing 2009 flick, 'Avatar 2' is still years away from premiering in cinemas (2020 is it's release date). 

Now, this news concerned me. The reason being is because it is yet more evidence to a recent trend Hollywood has been adopting, in announcing whole cinematic universes or franchises based on a smash-hit and leggy original which garnered awards buzz, huge global box office totals and critical applause. Think J.K. Rowling's Fantastic Beasts series in which the author-turned-screenwriter announced that she had planned a five-film saga. Indeed, we haven't even had the second instalment yet, namely 'Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald' which opens in a week or two from today, and already the third film is about to start filming and the scripts for 4 and 5 being written as we speak. Think Universal/Comcast Corp. announcing a whole 'Dark Universe' before the first film - the Tom Cruise-starring remake of 'The Mummy' even premiered in theatres. As that films commercial and critical failure proved (and rightly so as the film is shockingly bad), studios bets on crafting whole franchises/universes can fall through if they get to "ahead of themselves". More evidence is found when looking at the DC Film's series, which all apart from the solo 'Wonder Woman' adventure out-right bombed at least critically and/or commercially compared to expectations and now the 10,756 films that were planned for release have a mysterious status of production (in other words, scrapped). 

This all shows us how crazy it is for studios to jump so far ahead of themselves that they start creating franchises out of really surprisingly successful first instalments. Yes, I'm not a fan of 'Avatar' at all so I can't see any reason for a franchise to be created from it, but being one of the highest-grossing flicks of all time, I respect it does have many fans and a sequel is justifiable. However, even to the fans, do audiences really want to see a fifth Avatar flick when it comes out in 2030 or whenever it ends up being released? I'm willing to bet no for now. 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them' was a surprisingly leggy and well-received first instalment, and yes a sequel is justified as it the Harry Potter fan base is huge anyway, and the film itself gained many fans. But, even to those general audiences that loved the first film, are you really going to be excited for/do you need a fifth Fantastic Beasts film? When Universal/Comcast Corp. asked audiences if they wanted a Dark Universe fifth film, the answer was no straight away. But, and I'm not saying this as a definite because we haven't seen the commercial/critical performances of the likes of 'Fantastic Beasts 2' and 'Avatar 2' yet, but their original films, could have been one-off's. Their expontential success showed that general audiences were interested in them, not just the core fans. However, whose to say general audiences care about seeing sequels because the draw of the IP or simply having 2 after a popular title isn't enough alone to draw them back into cinema screens, unlike the die-hard fans. 

So, we shall see in two weeks time and then in two years time whether the Fantastic Beasts and Avatar franchises justification of 5-part series is something that the studios were right to peruse. However, perhaps going back to the age of putting all your money and attention into making a really high-quality original and sequel first, and then worrying about subsequent films if the commercial justification is then there is not a bad idea. As ever, we'll see.