Disney Forces Woke Director James Cameron To Slash 'Avatar' Budgets After 'Fire And Ash' Box Office Disaster
Insulting your biggest market turns out to be a poor business strategy.
Woke may not be dead when it comes to real world political ideology, but the last six months have shown that woke is certainly dead when it comes to major movies.
Not just when it comes to "woke" movies that have flopped at the box office, most recently "The Bride!," a feminist retelling of the Frankenstein story directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal out of hatred for President Trump, but also with films that have been successful at the box office.
"Project Hail Mary" has been a runaway financial success, with $222 million earned at the domestic box office in just a few weeks in theaters, with $425 million at the international box office. The writer of the original story, Andy Weir, specifically highlighted that he intended to avoid politics, and "identity politics" in particular, when coming up with the plot.
Well, in the latest example of "woke" becoming a brand associated with failure, Disney has essentially admitted that one of its largest budget projects, "Avatar," has declined, dramatically.
James Cameron attends the "Avatar: The Way Of Water" photo call at Corinthia London in London, England. (Photo by Fred Duval / SOPA Images/Sipa USA)
Disney Wants To Slash ‘Avatar’ Budgets, Run Time As Audience Evaporates
"Avatar" has been one of the most prolific, financially successful franchises in Hollywood history. The first film set records, with nearly $3 billion in worldwide box office, still the entertainment industry's highest total gross. It's in the top four in the rankings of highest domestic box office gross, despite releasing in 2009.
The second film, "Avatar: The Way of Water," was another massive financial success. While it didn't reach the heights of the first film, it made a whopping $2.33 billion in the United States and international markets. But audiences seemed less interested in the story, characters, and plot development, an unsurprising outcome considering director James Cameron has shown little interest in anything other than politics over the past few decades.
That's not an exaggeration, it's a description of how Cameron's chosen to spend his time. In an interview promoting the latest entry in the franchise, "Avatar: Fire and Ash," Cameron took time to criticize the United States and extol the virtues of New Zealand.
"People there [New Zealand] are, for the most part, sane as opposed to the United States where you had a 62% vaccination rate, and that’s going down — going the wrong direction," he added. "Where would you rather live? A place that actually believes in science and is sane and where people can work together cohesively to a common goal, or a place where everybody’s at each other’s throats, extremely polarized, turning its back on science and basically would be in utter disarray if another pandemic appears."
Well, turns out, people don't like being told that they're insane. Sure enough, after the first two movies each brought in over $2.3 billion, audiences didn't show up for "Fire and Ash."
Here's how the "Avatar" films performed at the box office, with and without adjustments for inflation:
Film | Reported Domestic Gross | Inflation-Adjusted Domestic Gross | Reported Worldwide Gross | Inflation-Adjusted Worldwide Gross |
Avatar (2009) | $785,221,649 | $1,188,237,299 | $2,923,710,708 | $4,424,307,608 |
Avatar: The Way of Water (2022) | $688,459,501 | $758,020,593 | $2,334,484,620 | $2,570,358,045 |
Avatar: Fire and Ash (2025) | $404,291,681 | $407,698,893 | $1,485,951,561 | $1,498,474,578 |
Total | $1,877,972,831 | $2,353,956,785 | $6,744,146,889 | $8,493,140,231 |
Domestic box office went from nearly $1.2 billion after adjusting for inflation to just $408 million for "Fire and Ash." That's a disaster, considering the latest film's astronomical $400 million estimated budget. While it still likely turned a profit, it was nowhere close to the level of previous "Avatar" entries. And as a result, Disney has now reportedly told Cameron he doesn't have the carte blanche he once enjoyed.
The Wrap reported this week that Disney executives are demanding budget and running time cuts to the upcoming "Avatar 4" and "Avatar 5" projects, after "Fire and Ash" was such a financial disappointment.
That's as clear a sign as you'll get that Cameron's films, a repetitive lecture on the evils of colonization and climate change, are no longer resonating. It's a clear sign that his decision to criticize everyone living in the most important theatrical market might have been a mistake. He's an arrogant, egotistical, self-obsessed person who's so convinced of his own superiority that he doesn't feel the need to even fake respect for his home country. The home country that gave him the opportunity to be who he is. Now, it's come back to bite him.
Giving him less money and a tighter leash may not entirely come down to politics. But it sure didn't help Cameron's cause. Maybe one day he'll learn something.