James Cameron: the success of "Avatar" consecrates the "return" of cinema after the pandemic

The immense theatrical success of Avatar: The Way of Water, the second edition of James Cameron's saga, the revenues of which are approaching 2 billion dollars at the worldwide box office, proves that "cinema is back," after the pandemic, said the Canadian director on Thursday, January 12 to the AFP. "We've had a year to see that this resurgence isn't an accident, or just one movie," he explained, citing other feature films that have brought theatrical crowds back to cinemas in the United States in 2022, such as Top Gun: Maverick, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever or the latest Spider-Man. With these popular successes, to which is added the success of the new Avatar, "there is a trend," he believes.

Something was needed to invigorate the film industry, to which competition from streaming and the apathy following the pandemic had initiated cold sweats among executives. In the United States, around 500 theaters have closed since the start of the health crisis, according to the National Association of Theater Owners.

And Cineworld, the British group that owns Regal Cinemas, America's second-largest cinema chain, is in the midst of restructuring after filing for bankruptcy this fall. In a recovering industry, the director of Titanic and Terminator remains firmly convinced of the adaptability of the seventh art. "I think movies will never die," he insisted. "As a culture and as a society, we need to find ourselves in these great spaces, with hundreds of strangers."

At the age of 68, the filmmaker recognizes, however, that the habits of going out have changed, and the public's renewed taste for the big show and entertainment does not flow towards auteur or independent cinema. "I discern a certain type of film that people want to see in the cinema, and another type [of feature film] that they will not go see," summarized James Cameron. In this sense, "streaming has a very important and very rich place" to hold for the diversity of the cinematographic offer, according to him.