Speaking to NPR James Cameron Slams Watching Movies on your Smart Phones.
Avatar: The Way of Water, the sequel to James Cameron’s beloved 2009 work, dominates the box office worldwide. The film is about to exceed the 2 billion mark, leading the filmmaker to become the only one in history to have made three films with this type of box office result. Speaking to NPR, the filmmaker talked about the importance of seeing his work on a suitable screen, whatever it is, as long as it’s not a smartphone.
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. James Cameron draws the line at watching “Avatar” on the phone, but it’s not because of the screen size.
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.
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.
A few weeks ago, the director of Terminator expressed his frustration over streaming services
I’m not thinking of it in those terms; I’m thinking of it in the terms of we’re going back to theatres around the world. They’re even going back to theatres in China where they’re having this big Covid surge. We’re saying as a society, ‘We need this! We need to go to theatres’. Enough with the streaming already! I’m tired of sitting on my a*s.
“The Way of Water” has made around $1.98 Billion and is currently the sixth highest-grossing film of all time and also the highest-grossing movie of 2022, leaving behind Tom Cruise’s Top Gun: Maverick.
