Avatar 2, 3, 4 & 5 officially start production with $1 billion budget

Smashing box-office records in 2009, Avatar quickly became the highest-grossing film of all time, James Cameron beating his own record-breaking Titanic.

Despite the financial incentive, Cameron and the film studio have waited eight years to finally begin production on a sequel. Well, not just one sequel, but four.

According to Deadline, production officially commenced at Manhattan Beach on the quartet of blockbusters, all of which will be shooting back-to-back.

Not only will Cameron be filming an unprecedented number of films back-to-back, beating out Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, but the budget marks a new record.

Analysts estimate Cameron will spend upwards of $1 billion on the four films, quadruple what was spent by Jackson (although, $675 million was spent on The Hobbit trilogy).

The only other project that was rumoured to have a $1 billion budget was the upcoming Avengers films, Infinity War and an unnamed sequel. However, head of Marvel Kevin Feige said this number was false. In addition, the two Avengers films were not filmed back-to-back.

The four Avatar sequels currently have release dates, starting 18 December 2020, the rest coming 17 December 2021, 20 December 2024, and 19 December 2025.

Previously talking about the project, Cameron said: “The thing is, my focus isn’t on Avatar 2. My focus is on Avatar 2, 3, 4, and 5 equally. That’s exactly how I’m approaching it.