Lede

A director threatening to spoil his own sequels is not artistry – it is a box office ransom note.

Hermit Off Script

Really? How the mighty keep slipping on the same banana peel. The vibe is pure: “If I do not get my way, I will not do it.” And there it is again, money steering the ship, louder than any ethical or humanitarian speech on a red carpet. People work, pay bills, burn their lives to build astonishing worlds and stories, and the second the spreadsheet frowns, the creator grabs the toys and storms off. Why not reduce the scale and use cheaper tech that still tells the story, especially for films like these? Why not push cinema forward instead of polishing the same old trick – make films designed for new formats, or build experiences around virtual reality headsets where space and time are less of a cage? But no, here we go again: 3D with glasses we have worn for more than a decade, a format plenty of people do not even like, yet they are nudged into paying for it to watch the film they came for. Then the creator basically spits on the audience effort: “If it does not bring enough money, I will not do the next ones.” Fine. Do not do it with that mindset. If the tech stays the same, I would rather wait ten years for something more immersive – maybe even driven by AI, the same AI artists rage about now. Today it is trained on their work. Tomorrow it trains on its own.

PS: To be fair, I get the human bit of it. You spend decades building a universe, you want the full arc on screen, not chopped up by studio nerves and weekend charts. If Cameron really does end up novelising the rest, that is not a tantrum – it is at least an attempt to leave a proper, canonical record of what the saga was meant to be. I just wish the message to the audience was less “pay up or I spoil it” and more “if the films stop, I will still finish the story – for the people who cared enough to show up.”

Avatar: Fire and Ash (2025) | Official Trailer

Cast and credits

Director: James Cameron
Writers: James Cameron, Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver (story also credited to Josh Friedman and Shane Salerno)
Main cast: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Oona Chaplin, Kate Winslet
Composer: Simon Franglen
Production company/studio: Lightstorm Entertainment / 20th Century Studios
Runtime: 197 minutes
Release year and platform: 2025, theatrical

What does not make sense

• “I will reveal the whole plan” is a funny threat from a man who claims the saga is bigger than any single film.
• Premium pricing is treated like a sacred law, and then audiences are blamed for not worshipping hard enough.
• The franchise sells wonder, but negotiates like a telecom provider cancelling your contract mid-call.
• If the story is truly the point, “cheaper but good” should beat “expensive or nothing”.
• The industry moans about streaming eating cinema, then doubles down on add-ons that make cinema feel like admin.

Sense check / The numbers

1. Cameron told Entertainment Weekly he would “hold a press conference” and explain what Avatar 4 and 5 were going to do if they do not get made (published December 26, 2025). [Entertainment Weekly]
2. Avatar: Fire and Ash reached about $760 million worldwide by December 28, 2025, with a 28 per cent drop in its second weekend, according to Entertainment Weekly. [Entertainment Weekly]
3. The domestic box office in 2025 was about 22 per cent below 2019 levels, per Comscore figures reported by Entertainment Weekly (published December 28, 2025). [Entertainment Weekly]
4. Avatar (2009) has grossed $2,923,710,708 worldwide and Avatar: The Way of Water (2022) has grossed $2,343,477,301 worldwide, per Box Office Mojo. [Box Office Mojo]
5. Premium formats are being pushed harder: The Numbers reported a $580 million difference between Q2 top-10 films in 2024 vs 2025, a 36 per cent increase, and noted 3D appeared in 5 of the top 10 in 2025 vs 2 in 2024 (published September 11, 2025). [The Numbers]

The sketch

Scene 1: The Hostage Note
Panel: A glowing blue “Pandora” lunchbox on a studio desk, chained to a calculator.
Dialogue 1: “If the numbers cry, I spoil the ending.”
Dialogue 2: “Sir, that is not a creative process. That is extortion with extras.”
Scene 2: The Glasses Tax
Panel: A teen at the cinema counter being handed chunky 3D specs like a parking ticket.
Dialogue 1: “I just want the story.”
Dialogue 2: “That will be the story, plus glasses, plus a surcharge, plus regret.”
Scene 3: The Future Screening
Panel: A VR headset labelled “2035” sits next to a dusty pile of 3D glasses labelled “2015-2025”.
Dialogue 1: “We finally made it immersive.”
Dialogue 2: “Great. Now, do not threaten to leak your own plot like a bored influencer.”

What to watch, not the show

• Franchises as financial instruments, not stories.
• Premium formats as a price-inflation alibi with a cinematic veneer.
• Release-date bravado masking real risk management.
• Streaming training audiences to wait, while studios punish waiting with spoilers.
• The slow drift from “cinema as event” to “cinema as upsell”.

The Hermit take

If your masterpiece needs a hostage note, it is not a masterpiece – it is a product launch.
Make the work because it matters, not because the till makes you feel loved.

Keep or toss

Keep / Toss
Keep the ambition to build worlds that feel lived in.
Toss the sulk-and-spoil leverage, and build formats that respect both story and audience.

Sources

• Entertainment Weekly – Cameron press conference quote and sequel risk (Dec 26, 2025): https://ew.com/avatar-4-james-cameron-press-conference-if-sequels-dont-happen-11876189
• Entertainment Weekly – Fire and Ash box office and 28 per cent second-weekend drop (Dec 28, 2025): https://ew.com/avatar-fire-and-ash-tops-box-office-second-weekend-in-a-row-11876749
• Box Office Mojo – Top lifetime grosses (Avatar and The Way of Water totals): https://www.boxofficemojo.com/chart/ww_top_lifetime_gross/
• The Numbers – Premium formats and 36 per cent Q2 increase; 3D counts (Sept 11, 2025): https://www.the-numbers.com/news/259880830-Premium-formats-are-driving-average-movie-ticket-price-increases-in-2025
• Wikipedia – Avatar: Fire and Ash credits, runtime, budget range, release date: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avatar%3A_Fire_and_Ash