Avatar: The Way of Water will test even the strongest bladder with its 192-minute runtime. However, James Cameron says it doesn’t matter when audiences take a bathroom break, as they can see the movie a second time to find out what they missed.

If there was ever a way of delivering a huge box office, then encouraging audiences to see a movie twice is certainly one way of doing it. However, Avatar: The Way of Water will likely manage quite well even without “bathroom-breakers” returning for a second viewing. However, as Cameron recently told The Hollywood Reporter, the extended runtime was something that he pointed out Disney “bought” into when they purchased Fox. He said:

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It was in a follow-up to this that he was asked when audiences should take bathroom breaks during the movie, to which he responded:

“I said [to Disney], ‘You bought this from a bunch of guys at Fox who agreed to a three-hour movie,’ because that’s what we said we were going to do. We’re going to play the epic game.”

While many of the biggest movies right now are from the MCU and tend to see extremely high footfall in the first week, which leads to a significant drop-off in the second week, Cameron is unsure that Avatar: The Way of Water will work like that. The original Avatar only saw a drop of 8% each week across its first ten weeks of release. However, these are different times, and with a potential $180 million opening domestic weekend, Cameron’s Avatar sequel could see a similar pattern to many big blockbusters of recent times.

“Any time they want. They can see the scene they missed when they come see it again.”

Can Avatar: The Way of Water Become A $1 Billion Hit?

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So far, there has been only one movie to pass the $1 billion mark this year, and this is the anomaly that was Top Gun: Maverick. However, it looks like Black Panther: Wakanda Forever could well join it by the end of its run, and Avatar: The Way of Water is likely to make it a trinity in the next couple of months.

The original Avatar release brought something unique at the time; a 3D-rendered world that was unlike anything that had been put on screen before. The 3D movie fad has been and gone, and although there is no way to deny that the Avatar sequel is gorgeous, it’s unlikely that its visuals will have the same intriguing pull they did 13 years ago. Many people saw Avatar in theaters because they wanted to see what the fuss was about. How many of those have retained an interest in where the story goes next is what will potentially see Avatar: The Way of Water become a hit, or a mega-hit.

Avatar: The Way of Water is released in cinemas worldwide on December 16.