James Cameron excited ahead of ‘Avatar’ theatrical re-release

Director James Cameron has revealed his excitement ahead of the theatrical re-release of his 2009 classic, Avatar.

The movie is set to be shown in cinemas again from the 23rd of September, and Cameron is hopeful that it can evoke the same feelings that pushed it to be the highest-grossing movie for over a decade.

“Young film fans never had the opportunity to see it in a movie theater,” Cameron said in an interview with The New York Times. “Even though they think they may have seen the film, they really haven’t seen it. And I was pleasantly surprised, not only at how well it holds up but how gorgeous it is in its remastered state.”

While Cameron admits that streaming has had an impact on how movies are consumed, he believes cinemas may yet make a comeback.

“People are craving that,” Cameron said. “It’s slowly building back. Partly it’s been because of a dearth of top titles that people would want to see in a theater. But Avatar is the poster child for that. This is the type of film that you have to see in a theater.”

The movie’s sequel, Avatar: The Way of Water, also hits cinemas later this year, and Cameron is optimistic that the 13-year gap since the first movie won’t be a problem.

“I think I could have made a sequel two years later and have it bomb because people didn’t relate to the characters or the direction of the film,” he said.

“My personal experience goes like this: I made a sequel called Aliens, seven years after the first movie. It was very well received. I made a sequel called Terminator 2, seven years after the first movie.

“It did an order of magnitude of more, in revenue, than the first film. I was a little concerned that I had stretched the tether too far, in our fast-paced, modern world, with Avatar 2 coming in 12 years later.

“Right until we dropped the teaser trailer, and we got 148 million views in 24 hours. There’s that scarce seen but wondered at principle, which is, Wow, we haven’t seen that in a long time, but I remember how cool it was back then. Does that play in our favor? I don’t know. I guess we’re going to find out.”