James Cameron's AVATAR Sequels Could Cost More Than $1 Billion

James Cameron's Avatar was a major success at the box office, but the movie was also pretty expensive to make. With its "official" budget listed at $237 million, it would go on to gross $2.7 billion dollars at the box-office, making it the highest grossing film of all-time. And it's because of that it seems that Twentieth Century Fox felt so comfortable handing Cameron a blank check for the four sequels.

Cameron began production on the four sequels this week, which he will be shooting simultaneously. Deadline reports that the production will be the most expensive of its kind, with the estimated budget expected to pass $1 billion. Damn, that's a lot of money. Cameron has certainly proven that it's not smart to bet against him. Remember that $1B is the total budget for four movies, that breaks down to about $250 million per sequel. Cameron told Famous Monsters of Filmland earlier this year that he's looking at it as one big production.

"It’s not back-to-back. It’s really all one big production. It’s more the way you would shoot a miniseries. So we’ll be shooting across all [AVATAR scripts] simultaneously. So Monday I might be doing a scene from Movie Four, and Tuesday I’m doing a scene from Movie One. … We’re working across, essentially, eight hours of story. It’s going to be a big challenge to keep it all fixed in our minds, exactly where we are, across that story arc at any given point. It’s going to be probably the most challenging thing I’ve ever done. I’m sure the actors will be challenged by that as well. It’s like, ‘No, no, no, no, this person hasn’t died yet, so you’re still in this phase of your life.’ It’s a saga. It’s like doing all three GODFATHER films at the same time."

The first AVATAR sequel will hit theaters on December 18, 2020, with AVATAR 3 following on December 17, 2021, AVATAR 4 on December 20, 2024, and, finally, AVATAR 5 wrapping everything up on December 19, 2025.