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Movies & TV

30th Oct 2022

Avatar: The Way of Water runtime is over three hours long

Steve Hopkins

Avatar sequel runtime

The film is almost half an hour longer than Avatar

Avatar: The Way of Water will be more than three hours long, according to reports. The Hollywood Reporter said the run time for the hotly anticipated sequel to James Cameron’s sci-fi epic is three hours and 10 minutes – or 190 minutes. Movies in this genre usually last somewhere between 120 to 150 minutes

Given Avatar fans have been waiting 13 years for the follow-up – Avatar was released in December 2009 – perhaps Cameron has been busy giving them everything they could possibly want from a sequel.

The official synopsis for the sequel reads: “Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) have formed a family and are doing everything to stay together. “However, they must leave their home and explore the regions of Pandora. When an ancient threat resurfaces, Jake must fight a difficult war against the humans.”

Cameron is no stranger to playing the long game. The award-winning director’s romance, Titanic, was three hours and 14 minutes long.

A three-hour epic isn’t out of the ordinary for an acclaimed and award-winning director like Cameron, whose romance drama Titanic clocked in at a whopping three hours and 14 minutes.

The first film in the Avatar series – which is set to span across five films – is the highest-grossing film of all time worldwide, with a total gross of $2.92 billion. That film was around 29 minutes shorter than its sequel, lasting two hours and 41 minutes.

Cameron has previously encouraged fans to have pee breaks because of the long run time but doesn’t really think much of the complaints.

“I don’t want anybody whining about length when they sit and binge-watch for eight hours […] I can almost write this part of the review,” he said in an interview with Empire.

“‘The agonisingly long three-hour movie…’ It’s like, give me a f*****g break. I’ve watched my kids sit and do five one-hour episodes in a row.”

Cameron unveiled a first look at half a dozen underwater scenes from The Way of Water in September.

A remastered version of the 2009 film was released shortly after to get fans excited about Avatar: The Way of Water.

The re-release grossed $76 million at the global box office, pushing the film’s total gross even closer to the $3 billion mark.

Avatar: The Way of Water will be released on 16 December.