James Cameron’s Avatar sequels have been revealed to be released in the December spot that has previously been reserved for Star Wars.
Since Disney began to release new Star Wars films, the film company has primarily reserved the December release spot for their blockbuster’s theatrical release spot.
Aside from Solo: A Star Wars Story, which was released in May 2018, all other Star Wars films released under the Disney banner have opened in the December spot, as to not come into conflict with its Marvel films, which are typically released in either February, late April-early May, July, or November.
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The Force Awakens began this trend when it was released in theaters in December 2015, followed by Rogue One being released in December the following year, and then The Last Jedi, which was released in December 2017.
Solo broke this trend as it was released in May 2018, however, it under performed at the box office due to the competition of Avengers: Infinity War and Deadpool 2, the latter of which was released one week prior.
The Rise of Skywalker is set to be released in December 2019, and will reset the trend of Star Wars films being released during the Holidays so it does not come into conflict with other movies, after which, Disney was expected to take a hiatus from Star Wars films.
Earlier this week, it was confirmed that after the release of The Rise of Skywalker and the conclusion of the new sequel trilogy, Disney will not release any new Star Wars films until the year 2022, with an Untitled Star Wars movie scheduled to be released in December of that year.
After this, one new Star Wars movie is to be released every other year going forward, with a second film to be released in 2024, and a third in 2026. This differs to the current model of releasing one Star Wars film per year that Disney had previously been utilizing.
One of the reasoning for this is because in its place for the December release spot for the years 2021, 2023, 2025, and 2025 are the four sequels to James Cameron’s Avatar.
Disney drops updated movie release schedule through 2027, including projects for Marvel, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Pixar, and the Avatar sequels pic.twitter.com/g2zfTZwWvO
— Fandom (@getFANDOM) May 7, 2019
For those unaware, Disney officially acquired 21st Century Fox back in March of this year, and with it, all of the properties owned by 20th Century Fox Movie and Television Studios, one of which was the Avatar Franchise.
As Disney now owns so may properties and produces several big budget blockbuster films each year, it must space out their movies’ release dates accordingly, so that they do not come into conflict with each other and hurt their profits.
The original Avatar film was released in 2009, however, due to technological constraints, the sequels were delayed for several years. The first Avatar film is currently the highest grossing film of all-time, so with the release of Avatar 2 in 2021, it would make sense to release it in December so that the movie can maximize on the lack of competition.
In short, going forward, the Avatar and Star Wars franchises will alternate the December theatrical release spot, with Avatar 2 taking the 2021 date and Star Wars the following year. This will go on until 2027, after which, Disney does not have any scheduled release dates for its movies.
It is still unknown what the upcoming movies will entail, as at the moment, two separate trilogies are confirmed to be in development, with one being headed by director Rian Johnson, and the other being created by Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss.
There is no confirmation as to which one of these trilogies, or if a combination of both of them will take up the spots Disney currently has reserved for Star Wars movies.
What do you think of Disney alternating releasing Star Wars and Avatar films every other year going forward? Leave your comments down below.