Avatar director James Cameron says the film has to be seen on the big screen, going so far as to say those who have only watched it at home "really haven’t seen it."
During an interview with The New York Times, the 68-year-old filmmaker explained why watching Avatar at home just isn’t the same as in theaters.
“Young film fans never had the opportunity to see it in a movie theater,” he explained, regarding the recent re-release of Avatar in theaters. “Even though they think they may have seen the film, they really haven’t seen it. And I was pleasantly surprised, not only at how well it holds up but how gorgeous it is in its remastered state.”
Avatar is heading back to theaters worldwide in just a couple of days with a remastered release debuting on September 23, 2022. However, Cameron admits that it isn’t quite the same as it was in 2009… at least when it comes to how we view films.
“We’ve got a turn of the world toward easy access in the home,” he said. “And that has to do a lot with the rise of streaming in general, and the pandemic, where we literally had to risk our lives to go to the movie theatre.”
It’s true that the box office suffered immensely due to the pandemic, where online streamers prospered. But now, Cameron feels the “resurgence of the theatre experience” is already happening.
“People are craving that,” said Cameron. “It’s slowly building back. Partly it’s been because of a dearth of top titles that people would want to see in a theater. But Avatar is the poster child for that. This is the type of film that you have to see in a theater.”
Avatar was originally released in 2009 and swiftly became the highest-grossing film of all time, with a staggering $2.8 billion box office haul. It was well received by the critics, too.
IGN’s Avatar review gave it 9/10 and said: “James Cameron pulled it off. [...] Neither the film's marketing nor the sizzle reel roadshow that 20th Century Fox and Cameron went on have done Avatar justice. You just have to see it to believe it.”
It also happens to be the perfect time for a re-release ahead of Avatar: The Way of Water – the upcoming sequel that debuts in December. It’s been twelve years since the original Avatar first hit theaters, and audiences might need a bit of a reminder before they see the sequel. What better way than to head back to the cinema and watch it on the big screen?
Want to read more about Avatar? Check out new plot details from the Avatar sequel as well as what Ubisoft is doing with the upcoming video game, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora.
Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.
source https://www.ign.com/articles/avatar-director-james-cameron-theater-home-tv