James Cameron on watching Avatar The Way of Water on phone: ‘You’re sort of missing the point’

James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water is still going strong at the global box office, even after multiple weeks of release and is nearing the $2 billion mark. The film which released on December 16, had crossed $1 billion within 12 days of release. Now the director is making his opinions clear on the whether Avatar is made for viewing on the phone. (Also read: James Cameron slams streaming releases amid Avatar’s record box-office success: ‘Enough with the streaming already!’)

In an interview with NPR, James Cameron revealed if he thinks that watching Avatar at home or in a mobile is a bad idea. He said that both experiences are still different, adding: “If you watch Way of Water at home on a reasonably large flat screen TV with a decent sound system and you sit close enough and that way across the room, you’re going to have a good experience. I think when you start looking at something on a phone, you’re sort of missing the point. Going to a movie theater is less about the size of the screen and the perfection of the sound system. And it’s more about a decision to not multitask.”

The Academy Award-winner stressed on this difference and explained his point further. “I think that’s the critical part that people are missing. You’re making a deal between yourself and a piece of art to give it your full attention. And you don’t when you’re at home. People don’t cry as much when they watch a movie at home as they will in a movie theater. You don’t have the depth of emotion,” he concluded.

Earlier, James Cameron had slammed streaming releases of films and said that audiences are hungry for the theatrical experience of the films and the box office numbers of his film prove the point. James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water has released 13 years after the 2009 original film. The sequel follows Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) as they try and protect their kids from the return of the Skypeople and Colonel Quaritch (Steven Lang) who is hell-bent on revenge. The film also introduces a new water tribe of the Na’vi called the Metkayina.

Avatar: The Way of Water, which released globally on December 16, also stars Sigourney Weaver, Kate Winslet, Cliff Curtis, Edie Falco and Jemaine Clement. In India, the film has been released in English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam. Plans are already underway for the next two instalments in the Avatar franchise to continue the saga of the Na’vi tribes of Pandora. The sci-fi feature has been named one of the ten best films of 2022 by the National Board of Review and the American Film Institute.