It wasn't too long ago that a movie being over two and a half hours was considered painfully long, but in recent years, we've seen more and more releases approach the mammoth three-hour mark.
Avengers: Endgame was over three hours, and ended up becoming the highest-grossing movie of all time before Avatar regained its top spot. Now, with it confirmed that the latter's upcoming sequel, Avatar: The Way of Water, will be a whopping three hours and ten minutes, James Cameron has weighed in on how moviegoers should handle their bathroom breaks.
"[Viewers should go to the bathroom] any time they want," the director told The Hollywood Reporter (via SFFGazette.com) when asked about the bladder-straining 192-minute runtime. "They can see the scene they missed when they come see it again."
It's not exactly a shock Cameron has that attitude following reports Avatar: The Way of Water cost upwards of $400 million to produce. While the sequel has secured a release in China, repeat viewings from positive word of mouth will be essential to the 3D movie's success, particularly if Disney hopes to turn a profit.
The studio acquired the Avatar franchise during the Disney/Fox merger and the filmmaker points out that he was upfront with them from the start. "I said [to Disney], 'You bought this from a bunch of guys at Fox who agreed to a three-hour movie,' because that's what we said we were going to do. We're going to play the epic game."
That "epic game" will include at least one more movie, though there are already plans in place for Avatar 4 and 5. If Cameron has his way, the franchise will go beyond even those. "I’d be 89 by then," he says of potentially making sixth and seventh chapters. "Obviously, I’m not going to be able to make Avatar movies indefinitely, the amount of energy required."
"I would have to train somebody how to do this because, I don’t care how smart you are as a director," he continued, "you don’t know how to do this."
Set more than a decade after the events of the first film, the sequel begins to tell the story of the Sully family (Jake, Neytiri, and their kids), 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.
Avatar: The Way of Water splashes down in theaters worldwide on December 16.