The arrival of Avatar in 2009 inadvertently kick-started a rush of movies that attempted to cash in on the use of 3D that didn’t require audiences to see everything through retro blue and red glasses. As the man behind the biggest-selling movie of all time, James Cameron isn’t a fan of the way studios tried to jump on the 3D bandwagon by tacking on 3D elements to movies just in order to charge a little extra for tickets.

It is not unfair to say that Avatar as a movie does not have an exceptional storyline, and while it is acted out well, there is nothing unexpected from the exceptional ensemble cast. What made it an almost unmissable cinematic event came down to its unprecedented 3D rendering, which, at the time, was practically a one-of-a-kind experience. Now Cameron is doing it all over again with Avatar: The Way of Water, and while discussing the sequel with The New York Times, he took a moment to sound off about how studios “blew it.” He said:

“I think the studios blew it. Just to save 20 percent of the authoring cost of the 3-D, they went with 3-D post-conversion, which takes it out of the hands of the filmmaker on the set and puts it into some postproduction process that yielded a poor result. I do think that the new “Avatar” film will rekindle an interest in natively authored 3-D, which is what I personally believe is the right way to do it. I say either do 3-D or don’t do 3-D, but don’t try to slap it on afterward to get the up-charge on the ticket.”

Related: Sigourney Weaver Says She Drastically Changed Her Character in Avatar: The Way of Water

Can Avatar 2 Revive Interest in 3D Movies?

avatar-2-kiri
 20th Century Studios

In the early 2010s, it was hard to go to a theater to watch a 2D version of a movie without seeing something pointing a stick at the screen or a rogue tree branch leaning out across the screen for no reason other than to slap a 3D version in the adjacent screen with a bit of post-production 3D included for an extra few dollars charge. The question of whether Avatar: The Way of Water will instigate a similar outcome this time around is something that is hard to predict in the current climate.

With plenty of movies managing to pull in a lot of money without the added gimmick, and cost, of 3D technology, it may well be that studios just don’t see much point in following Avatar 2 down the route of an extended production time for very little return. However, as the Hollywood machine continues to recover from the Covid pandemic shutdowns, a boost in profits from a new wave of 3D movies may prove to be a pull that many cannot resist if Avatar: The Way of Water becomes one of the biggest movies of the year when it arrived in theaters on December 16.