Fans and the cinema world have their eyes on London, where Tuesday night will screen Avatar 2, the year’s most anticipated film by cinemas hoping to finally forget the pandemic and gross billions of dollars.
• Also read: Disney and James Cameron reveal first images of the ‘Avatar’ sequel
“Avatar: the way of the water”, signed by James Cameron, hits French cinemas on Wednesday December 14 and in the United States two days later, with a triple ambition: to surpass the first opus, the greatest success in the history of the world box office to deny the death of cinema in theaters and give rise to such a legendary saga as “Star Wars”.
13 years after “Avatar”, which grossed €3 billion worldwide, this second film sets out on the path of the star Pandora, light-years from Earth, for a sci-fi fable with an ecological tone. .
Shot like the first for 3D, with a mountain of digital images, the film spans 3:12. Contrary to James Cameron’s predictions at the time, “Avatar” did not allow the three-dimensional image to be widely implemented in cinema, requiring the wearing of ad hoc glasses, but the director is sticking to this technology.
The plot secret is jealously guarded, but the film must allow for the discovery of a new tribe of native aliens living in the marine environment and features the survivors of the first work, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) and their five children. Kate Winslet joins the cast, a quarter century after Titanic.
Like a hundred people, Dobrinka Perry, “a big fan of the film”, was waiting in cold London to see the film crew. Her face painted the same blue as the characters, she identifies with the two heroes: “I also have five children, I’m also a fighter, I fight for my Pandora (…) for (the planet) that we leave it to us we later our children,” she said.
“We’ve been patient for a long time,” so “expectations are very high,” enthuses Nelly Szabo, 23-year-old Londoner, who says “everything” to love the film “the love story, the fight” and the special effects.
“I really liked the first one, so I’m happy that there’s finally a 2,” enthuses Geraldine Esteve, an illustrator from Paris, “for the red carpet, for the actors”. “I liked the universe, the aesthetic,” she recalls. “It was very nice to see it on the big screen, the colors, the lights…”
The film poses a major challenge to James Cameron, the undisputed king of the world box office who chained records with Titanic and the first Avatar, which remains the world’s highest-grossing film to date. Also at stake for Disney: the images of the third opus have already been shot and a new “Avatar” is planned every two years, at least until the 5th in 2028.
“I always worry when a film comes out and it’s a particularly difficult time,” admitted the director, who was interviewed by the BBC on the red carpet, in the wake of the pandemic.
“We have faith in the film…it’s a good experience, it’s powerful, it’s full of emotion…but we’ll see what happens,” he added.
“The release of the film is a great test for the global cinema industry, everyone is waiting for it,” analyzes for AFP Éric Marti, General Manager of Comscore France, which measures and analyzes audiences for films.
“For two years it was just for the platforms. For the cinemas, this release is “The Empire Strikes Back”: reaffirming the primacy of space over any other distribution channel, he adds.