James Cameron doesn’t make small movies. That’s part of his brand. But with the recently released Avatar: Fire and Ash nearing the end of its theatrical run, at $1.4 billion globally, some industry observers are starting to ask: Is Pandora losing altitude? As we head full steam into the third month of the 2026 movie schedule, it's worth looking into whether or not it's time to 'pump the brakes' on more Avatar flicks.
According to a recent Variety report, the third Avatar installment will finish well below the "two metric f---tons" of money the director was aiming for, the staggering $2.9 billion earned by 2009’s Avatar and the $2.3 billion hauled in by 2022’s Avatar: The Way of Water. While $1.4 billion would be a career-defining hit for most filmmakers, it’s a more complicated story here, given that the film stacks up with some of the most expensive movies ever made. Disney reportedly spent around $500 million to produce and market the threequel. As Wedbush Securities analyst Alicia Reese put it bluntly:
