'Avatar: The Way of Water' director James Cameron talks replicating box-office magic

Ten years ago, James Cameron plunged in a submersible to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, one of the most foreboding places on Earth at more than 35,000 feet beneath the Pacific Ocean.

But coming back to Hollywood to make four “Avatar” sequels – the first of which, “Avatar: The Way of Water,” hits theaters Friday – seemed destined to be the more challenging adventure.

“I told my wife a part of me hopes this movie falls on its ass so I don’t have to be an indentured servant to my creation,” Cameron, 68, tells USA TODAY from a Tokyo hotel room this week, where he's quarantined with COVID-19. “I guess you’ve got to be careful what you wish for.”

That wish isn’t likely to be fulfilled. Early glowing reviews for “The Way of Water,” which in many ways bests the original 13 years later, suggest Cameron has another titanic hit on his hands. The movie is expected to take in $175 million at the box office this weekend alone.

'Avatar: The Way of Water' review: Prepare for a visually stunning return to Pandora

Given that 2009's technologically groundbreaking “Avatar” tops the all-time box office list with $2.7 billion globally, you’d think Cameron would be busy updating his net worth. Not so.

“I don’t doubt we’ll make a lot of money, but we’ve also spent a lot of money, so there’s an internal formula that only we know that tells us if we’re being profitable,” he says. (Reports suggest the new film may have cost upward of $2 billion between its budget and marketing costs.)

'Avatar: The Way of Water' review: Prepare for a visually stunning return to Pandora

Cameron, who directed blockbusters “The Terminator" (1984) and "Titanic" (1997), says returning to the “Avatar” world was not a given: “When you’ve done the highest-grossing movie in history, you’re in the shadow of your own stuff. You have to get your head straight.”

Apparently, he did. The four planned sequels – all are already plotted out and the third installment has been shot – are “a proposal for a business model that we won’t know about for a few more weeks,” he says.

That’s the pragmatist in Cameron, who takes the same methodical approach to his deep-sea expeditions and plant-focused sustainable farming ventures as he does to moviemaking. He’s less an auteur and more a master builder who envisions the world’s tallest edifice and then sets about building it.

But there’s something curious happening with “The Way of Water,” which challenges moviegoers to sit still for 192 minutes. While Cameron epics are typically more about spectacle than the script, this second “Avatar” tale has layers.

'The Way of Water' taps into Cameron's feelings about parenthood

To sum up the new story spoiler-free, it’s about 15 years later, and Marine-turned-avatar and Na’vi warrior Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and his fearsome Na’vi bride Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) have two teen sons and one adopted daughter, Kiri (Sigourney Weaver, who played Kiri’s mother in the original).

“The Way of Water” boils down to a family drama that finds the Sully family fleeing their forested realm on Pandora for another part of the island dominated by an oceanic Na’vi clan. The Sullys learn to love the water but are eventually hunted down by humans who have adopted their big blue avatar guise.

Massive and at times horrifying battles ensue for cultural and familial survival, with a decided emphasis on the schisms that can surface between fathers and sons.

“I’ve been the misunderstood teenage kid whose father doesn’t understand him, and also the father who sometimes didn’t get his kids,” says Cameron, who has been married five times and has five children. “I’ve been on both sides, so I wrote that in. The bonds within family that strengthen you as well the times that aren’t as pleasant.”

Incorporating that storyline into “The Way of Water,” along with Cameron's myriad personal passions, adds depth to the new tale.

“Indigenous rights, sustainability and the oceans are the three things that drive me in my non-Hollywood life, and I figured I could express how I feel about those things in this greater landscape,” says Cameron.

Kate Winslet bested the 'Avatar' cast in free diving

Expressing those sentiments pushed his cast hard. Not only were most scenes done in a visual vacuum, as bodies dotted with motion capture sensors, many had to be shot underwater so the “rendered” scenes looked natural.

Many of the actors took free diving lessons with renowned instructor Kirk Krack, and Kate Winslet bested the group with a seven-minute breath hold.

“I couldn’t come close to Kate and Sigourney,” says Cameron with a laugh, who has been free diving for years. “I don’t see that as putting the actors through something. It’s preparation; it’s a boot-camp mentality. Actors love this stuff, are you kidding me?”

Saldaña says Cameron kept the cast informed of his progress on the “Avatar” sequels throughout the years, eventually calling the actors into a 2015 meeting to lay out the sequel’s broad strokes. She says Cameron isn’t motivated by money, but by the communal bonds that can be forged in a movie theater.

Director is determined to bring movie lovers back into theaters

“He understands that we as human beings are yearning for connection, and what better place to do that than in a cinema?” Saldaña says. The theater “is where we get to escape and be inspired and get aspirational.”

Say one thing about “The Way of Water”: it should help draw movie lovers back into theaters. The film is a sensory smorgasbord, the scuba diving adventure of your dreams, especially when seen on a massive screen in 3D with huge speakers, and would be downright silly viewed on a smartphone.

Cameron is keen to champion the theater experience in an age increasingly focused on streaming.

“We worked hard to optimize this visually and acoustically, to create a massive spectacle,” he says. “Are we just going to crawl away with our tail between our legs and just do streaming all the time? Or are we going to stand and fight? I might be like that last dinosaur looking up and getting sunburned by the comet coming into the atmosphere.”

While Cameron has heart, Worthington says Cameron’s biggest weapon is his brain. “He’s not taking inspiration from a book or a comic book or a spinoff of an old franchise,” he says. “This is coming from this guy’s imagination. That's very unique and very special, and I trust in that 100%.”

Stephen Lang, whose vengeful Marine character Col. Miles Quaritch died in the first film but returns as an avatar in “The Way of Water,” says the devotion Cameron lavishes on his story generated fierce loyalty among the cast and crew.

“I don’t think there’s anything we wouldn’t do to validate his vision and to help him on this journey because he’s given us so much,” says Lang. “I would never, ever bet against James Cameron, because his motivations come from the heart.”

The ever-candid Cameron drew fire in October when he lamented how comic-book heroes in the Marvel universe “all act like they’re in college.” He stands by the comment, but adds, “My point is, it shouldn’t just be action. Let’s do other stuff too.”

That’s a formula that has worked wildly well for Cameron over the past decades. And it’s looking increasingly likely it find him behind the camera well into this one.

Contributing: Patrick Ryan

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: James Cameron talks 'Avatar' sequel, his billion dollar box office bet