The Avatar movies are mid — so how did they conquer the box office twice?

The first movie in the Avatar franchise was released in 2009 and currently stands as the highest-grossing film in history, with nearly $3 billion earned at the global box office. The sequel, Avatar: The Way of Water, was released in 2022 and is now the third-highest-grossing movie in history, with $2.3 billion in earnings. (Avengers: Endgame comes in second place, if you’re wondering.)

Even with 14 years between movies, enthusiasm for Avatar never dimmed. People flocked back to the theater to see the continuing adventures of the tall blue aliens, who were trying to defend their home moon, Pandora, from resource-hungry human colonizers. This is a remarkable accomplishment, especially since the movies themselves are so mediocre.

The problem with the Avatar movies

Mileage will vary, but…

I don’t hate the Avatar movies. I enjoyed both, but I’m definitely among that annoying gaggle of film snobs flummoxed by just how successful the movies have become, given how thoroughly okay they are. You’ve probably heard my complaints before. The story, about a human soldier who embeds himself within an alien civilization and “goes native,” is shopworn; you can see it echoed in everything from Dances With Wolves to Lawrence of Arabia to Pocahontas. There’s nothing wrong with channeling the classics, but I don’t think Avatar builds enough on these ideas. The characters, from leading man Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) to fierce Na’vi warrior Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) to meathead villain Quaritch (Stephen Lang), all feel too familiar to be exciting.

While I liked watching the Avatar movies well enough, it felt like I forgot them almost immediately after, and it didn’t seem like I was the only one who felt that way. For years, there was persistent discussion online about how little cultural impact Avatar seemed to have, despite its popularity. On one level, this is a silly point. The fact that the movies have made so much money indicates that they’re being watched, talked about, and absorbed. There’s a whole Avatar land at Disney World. Some people complained of post-Avatar depression syndrome, the disappointing realization that the real world would never measure up to the jungles of Pandora. Obviously, the movies had an impact.

And yet…it’s true that you don’t see much heated debate about Avatar online, which is where passionate fans log their interest. The Avatar subreddit has over 700k followers, which is impressive… but it pales in comparison to the 2.2 million fans who follow the subreddit for Avatar: The Last Airbender, a series that never made billions at the box office. The Avatar films are directed by James Cameron, whose filmography is full of quotable classics: “I’ll be back” from Terminator; “Get away from her, you b****” from Aliens; “I’m the king of the world” from Titanic … but what’s the iconic line from Avatar? By the numbers, the Avatar franchise is unfathomably huge, but I don’t think people are out of line when they say it feels small.

How Avatar conquered the world

New technology, old story

One thing Avatar does have in common with other James Cameron films is that it embraced new technology. Back when Terminator 2 was released in 1991, people marveled as the T-1000 melted into a liquid and pushed itself through prison bars. In 1997, Titanic melded computer-generated imagery with practical effects in a way no one had ever seen before. And in Avatar, we saw flesh-and-blood actors transformed into 10-foot-tall aliens through the mass use of motion capture.

Cameron didn’t invent any of these techniques, but he has a knack for being the first person to perfect them and bring them to the masses. Motion capture was just one of the draws of the first Avatar movie. It also used stereoscopic cameras that let people watch it in 3D, as well as dynamic frame shifts that minimized blur during hectic scenes. In an age when films had to compete with the internet for attention, this all added up to a movie experience you couldn’t get anywhere else, and people flooded the theaters. When the sequel came around years later, they remembered that feeling.

But technology alone can’t account for why the Avatar movies became mega-hits. I complained earlier about the predictable storyline, but giving people a simple story they can follow without having to do a ton of homework is extremely inviting; the Marvel Cinematic Universe eventually became so complicated and interconnected that it buckled under its own weight, but that’s not a problem for Avatar. Sure, Jake and Neytiri feel a bit like stock characters, but familiarity can be comforting. The bar to entry for the Avatar movies is low, which is a good thing if you’re trying to attract the most people possible.

Avatar is for everybody

Not just film nerds

Avatar was always trying to be a movie for the masses, not just in the U.S. but around the world. The movies have done extremely well abroad, especially in China, which is one of the biggest and most important markets for film outside the United States. Again, the simple story is an asset; it’s not particular to any one culture, so it travels well. Who can’t relate to a story about underdogs fighting the good fight against a bigger, badder enemy? It worked for Star Wars, and it still works today.

I think the Avatar movies are a little dull, narratively speaking; I prefer a sci-fi movie like Mickey 17, an underrated sci-fi gem that’s weird and quirky and has its sights set on some very particular problems. There’s a whole world of idiosyncratic sci-fi movies out there if you’re interested. But at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what I think. The Avatar movies aren’t just for me; they’re for everybody, and I’m glad that they’ve managed to unite people around the world at a time when the monoculture is disappearing.

Get ready for Avatar: Fire and Ash

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I wonder if part of the reason Avatar doesn’t seem to have a huge cultural footprint to me is because I’m not looking in the right place. As an American, I’m used to pop culture revolving around my needs and interests. But as a truly global franchise, there are likely conversations about Avatar happening in places to which I don’t really have access.

In any case, Avatar is about to step onto the world stage again with Fire and Ash, which is due out in theaters on December 19. It’s definitely the biggest of the remaining sci-fi genre movies coming out this year. According to Box Office Pro, Fire and Ash is on track to make more money in its opening weekend than even The Way of Water, which sounds about right.