No surprise here at all. The "final" trailer for Avatar: The Way of Water released a few days ago wasn't their final promo.

There's a new teaser and also a declaration of this being Australian Avatar Week.

In relation to their trailer we expressed surprise at the complete lack of bioluminescence which was a signature feature of the first film.

Here we get a few quick flashes. None underwater.

Tease.

And not the first this week.

In an interview with GQ director James Cameron described the film as "Very fucking" expensive, "the worst business case in movie history" and that in order to be profitable:

.... you have to be the third or fourth highest-grossing film in history. That’s your threshold. That’s your break even.

He went on to talk about his one time defensiveness about being associated with only huge budget titles and said:

And I used to be really defensive about that because it was always the first thing anybody would mention. And now I’m like, if I can make a business case to spend a billion dollars on a movie, I will fucking do it. Do you want to know why? Because we don’t put it all on a pile and light it on fire. We give it to people.

This has inspired some, eg. Collider, to speculate that The Way of Water's budget could truly be in the vicinity of a billion dollars but The Hollywood Reporter claims inside sources peg it as being $350 - 400 million US.

Putting that in perspective, the same as Avengers: Endgame.

At the bigger end of the spectrum but hardly off the scale.

Though both estimates could be accurate from different perspectives.

One of the reasons for this sequel taking so long to make is that he had to develop new technology for the underwater scenes.

With three more films planned following The Way of Water, budgetarily that might not all be counted against this film.

Last year James revealed that he had already shot all of the second, third and also part of the fourth film - those scenes involving younger actors whose natural aging would be problematic otherwise.

Shooting has likely continued in the interim.

Avatar is not very likely to be a dud but when films are, it's not uncommon for planned sequels to be thrown away.

In which case all of that work might effectively might bump up the price tag of this film.

Avatar: The Way of Water releases in Australian cinemas on December 15.

[ Main Image: Avatar The Way of Water teaser. Credit: 20th Century Studios via YouTube. ]

References

Avatar (November 25, 2022). Avatar: The Way of Water | Our Fortress. YouTube.

Baron, Zack (November 21, 2022). The Return of James Cameron, Box Office King. GQ.

Mahotra, Rahul (November 22, 2022). ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ Needs to Be One of the Highest Grossing Films of All Time to Be Profitable. Collider.

McClintock, Pamela (November 22, 2022). Box Office: ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ Lands Coveted China Release. The Hollywood Reporter.

20th Century Studios AU (November 25, 2022). Avatar: The Way of Water | Australian Avatar Week. YouTube.