A shoddy sequel might do well ... but it would be a "one-off" and anything following would not fare well.  (Though I doubt James Cameron would do "shoddy")

Also, we are already pushing three years since the original film. The sequel is planned for a 2015 release -- six years after the first one. That is twice as long as sequels in the Star Wars universe or Star Trek series (except for natural breaks or reboots).  (And the Lord of the Rings series came annually for three years).

In other words, the "buzz" from the original may be long gone and this will have to stand on its own.

Mike from Morgantown

Lucas is remembered because he created two of the greatest film franchises in movie history. Did he "ruin" those franchises later? Possibly, but the originals will always be remembered as being some of the greatest blockbusters of all time. I'm talking about individual movies, not franchises. Were the later Jurassic Parks shit? Yeah, pretty much, but the original is still a pretty good film all these years later.

I disagree. Twenty years from now, kids will be fondly remembering Nolan's Batman more than they'll be thinking about Avatar, just as the previous generation still gets excited when thinking about the original Matrix movie but, by and large, doesn't give a shit about Independence Day. Which movie have you watched multiple times? I'm willing to bet you've seen The Matrix a few times but Independence Day only once, if at all. And guess which one grossed more money and therefore was "more popular and unforgettable"? Here's a hint. It wasn't The Matrix, even though it released three years later. Why? Because The Matrix was a pretty fucking cool movie and a really great blockbuster film. Independence Day was pretty much shit with Will Smith and really impressive visuals.

And I can't believe I haven't mentioned LOTR yet. Those are the kinds of movies that people remember and watch for 20 or 30 years. Stunning visuals, great characterization, and a truly engaging story.

Avatar makes my butt hurts because it was released the same year as District 9 and no one seems to know what District 9 is about.

This is great news, more movies from my favorite universe. Avatar will have the highest opening weekend ever in the states when it comes out and will break 2 billion in total sales once again. Might even break the 3 billion mark, I am certain of this ................

Sigh. District 9 was so much better than Avatar.

*Smacks head* Ah Blade Runner, forgot that one, brilliant movie!

(Although I prefer the book.)

To be honest though I think Ridley Scott is a bit hit and miss. Promethues does look very promising though.

Battle Angel: Alita, no more??? :(

That sucks, but at least he won't be producing Sanctum sequels.

I think Avatar is a great film and I'm looking forward to the sequel.

And before people assume Avatar is mostly hated going by the comments in this thread, it's not. The hate you see on the internet often accounts for a very small minority of people who have actually watched the film/played the game etc.

Hell, if Avatar was really so bad and hated by most people how did it manage to amass close to 31,000,000 million fans on Facebook alone? https://www.facebook.com/Avatar and why is it the best-selling film on Blu-ray and the highest grossing film of all time? The majority of people liked the film no matter what a bitter minority of pretentious haters on the internet say.

I acknowledge that if it was extremely poor it would ruin the box office potential of a future enstallment past the first sequel. I was addressing your post but also others that had doubts that a sequel would be successful.

Actually the fact that you mention that James Cameron is unlikely to produce a poor film only further strenthens the idea that it's unlikely these sequels will underperform at the box office. Beyond The Abyss which I see as kind of a pet project for him given his huge personal interest in diving and sea exploration, every film he has released over the course of 25 years has made massive profit.

In relation to the gap between films, there was a period of 7 years between the first Terminator movie and the sequel. Terminator 2 went on to be the most succesful movie of 1991. The buzz may well fade, all we can do is speculate on that, but I would bet that the movie is still fresh in the minds of many and once a gigantic marketing push rolls out, people will remember and word of mouth will begin to spread again.

I'm really not sure if doubts regarding the success of James Camerons future work is justified. All the past evidence we have points to him making virtually nothing but successful blockbusters. He has a formula for making movies that seems to work. There were critics and analysts in droves predicting doom and gloom for his  'blue cat people' movie to begin with and we all saw how that turned out.