James Cameron Calls 'Avatar' Sequels 'Big Roll of the Dice': 'Are We Going to Make Any Damn Money?'

James Cameron admits his long-awaited Avatar sequels will be a gamble at the box office.

The filmmaker, 67, told Entertainment Weekly that, given the state of moviegoing amid the pandemic and beyond, he worries whether the subsequent installments can match Avatar's success.

The 2009 original film broke records upon release and currently sits as the No. 1 highest-grossing movie of all time (not adjusting for inflation). Avatar also received nine Oscar nominations — including for Best Picture — with three total wins.

"The big issue is: Are we going to make any damn money? Big, expensive films have got to make a lot of money," said Cameron, who also directed the No. 3 movie with the biggest box office, 1997's Titanic. "We're in a new world post-COVID, post-streaming. Maybe those [box office] numbers will never be seen again. Who knows?"

"It's all a big roll of the dice," he said.

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Now owned by Disney following the company's acquisition of 20th Century Fox in 2019, the long-delayed Avatar sequel is currently slated for a Dec. 16, 2022, release date. A third film is expected to debut in 2024, a fourth in 2026 and a fifth in 2028.

Cameron told EW of the technical feats and innovations made to include underwater scenes in the upcoming movie, "It sounds kind of nuts, the process. I mean, if Avatar hadn't made so much damn money, we'd never do this — because it's kind of crazy."

Producer Jon Landau said the new movie will tell a "story about family, and the lengths parents will go through to keep that family together and keep them safe," explaining that much of the second film follows Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña)'s kids.

"What we are doing now, from a story standpoint and a world standpoint, is on a much larger scale. That's both exciting and challenging," shared Landau. "We are putting much more detail, first and foremost, into the performances of the cast, but we're putting much more detail and diversity into the world that we are creating."