James Cameron attends the world premiere of 20th Century Studios' "Avatar: Fire and Ash". Photo / Getty Images
Heading to the cinema with my family to the new Avatar film over the weekend, I realised I was feeling slightly afraid.
Not afraid that Avatar: Fire and Ash might not deliver the goods. Not at all. For sweeping, other-worldly cinema, James Cameron is the OG.
And the latest chapter of Cameron’s sumptuous sci-fi epic delivered across the board – it was a deeply enjoyable return to the beyond-gorgeous cinematography, the pulse-pounding combat sequences, keenly felt environmental messaging and reliably absorbing narrative. At one particularly wrenching dramatic moment, my wife and I had tears running down our cheeks.
No, I was afraid because of something Cameron had said in a recent interview regarding Fire and Ash – part three of his wildly successful Avatar series. And it was that, though he has prepared and even partially shot parts four and five, they may never get made.
Why? Because the industry production model that gave us the first two, he says, “may not be viable anymore”. We’re talking about films that have made over US$2 billion ($3.4b) each at the box office. A director who has made three of Hollywood’s five highest-grossing movies. And he’s talking about possibly not being able to make the next one?
How had it come to this for Cameron – the man who gave us Aliens (still my favourite action-thriller of all time), Point Break, Terminator 2, Titanic. The thought lingered, and refused to reconcile, with the dazzling cinematic wonder unfolding on the giant screen before me.
The three hours whipped by, the credits rolled, and we walked back out into the afternoon heat excitedly talking about our favourite scenes.
As we drove away to find some dinner, those troubling thoughts settled on my brain like one of the Navi’s flying steeds alighting on a branch. Avatar 4 in doubt? Hadn’t Fire and Ash just pass US$1b at the box office in a matter of weeks?
I believe the screen production industry’s battle royal with streaming giants over the world’s eyeballs – ever intensifying, if not already lost – was the nub of it.
If people are increasingly flopping on to the couch and firing up Netflix instead of popping down to the local multiplex, that’s a hard nut to crack for the artists who dream in terms of the giant screen.
As a child of the 80s, my love of cinema was ignited early with the likes of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (transporting, mesmerising, obsession-forming), The Labyrinth (bonkers, brilliant, Bowie) and E.T. (nightmares, nightmares, nightmares), and I am trying to nurture a similar enchantment in my children – we’ve made it something of a tradition to go to each Avatar film as a family.
But with the cost of everything shooting ever-higher, I admit we balked at paying close to $100, not including food, to take our family of four to Event cinemas for Fire and Ash, ultimately forking over $66 at Reading in New Lynn.
That was still a tough call, when the basic monthly Netflix plan costs the same as a single adult admission to the cinema.
Though our discretionary dollars are being stretched ever thinner, for me at least, the cinema experience is the apogee of filmed entertainment – you can see and feel where your money has gone.
The huge, immersive screens, rich, high-definition audio, the thrill of an intense experience shared, and importantly, seeing a film in the way visionaries like Cameron intended.
What Cameron’s worrying words are reminding us is that cinemas, and film-makers, are increasingly fighting a battle for survival.
That fight also casts a shadow over the livelihoods of the tens of thousands of passionate Kiwis who work in our local screen production industry. Let’s not forget, every dollar invested through New Zealand’s screen production rebate returns $2.40 to the wider economy.
If we, the paying fans, don’t show up, then the lights go down on our beloved movie palaces for the last time. For the love of James, keep going to the cinema.