How Long Did It Take To Make Avatar (And Why)?

Exact Answer: Around 15 Years

Avatar is a sci-fi fiction movie that was released in December 2009. The running time of the movie is 162 minutes and is originally made in the language, English. 

The movie had highly advanced graphics, sound effects, and multiple technologies used in it to make it the best watching experience for users. The initial budget to make the film was 237 million dollars, however, the budget later went over the board to the first 275 million dollars and then 310 million dollars. Apart from this budget, the budget for the promotion and the marketing of the film coated around a whopping 150 million dollars.

How Long Did It Take To Make Avatar?

The first part of Avatar was loved by people and it even overtook the famous series of the Avengers which was prominent at the time Avatar was released. However, the making of the Avatar was not as usual as it is when it comes to making movies. The making of the Avatar took a whopping 15 years from the time the idea to make such a film was conceptualized till the time it was released.

James Cameron was the person who wrote the Avatar. He conceptualized the idea of making such a film as early as 1994. Though the idea was approved and appreciated by many people who were involved in the making of the film, everything was decided, but the making of the film started in 2005.

2005 was the year when the production was started for making avatars, characters were chosen and designed, sets were made, cameras were laid and the shooting began. The shooting of the Avatar took about 2 years and was completed by early 2009.

Once the movie was all set to premiere, it was released in December 2009 in different countries.

Why Did It Take That Long To Make Avatar?

The major reason why Avatar took so long is because of the idea conceptualized by James Cameron. James Cameron, the writer of the movie, director, and producer as well had conceptualized Avatar to be a complete sci-fi movie with realistic and mons blowing graphics, sound effects, and highly advanced technology.

However, in the time of 1994, when the idea was conceptualized by James Cameron, the technology was not advanced enough to meet the needs of the movie. There was not much known about a term called 3-dimensional graphics, or any such thing which was needed to make the Avatar according to the idea of James Cameron.

Thus, James Cameron decided to put the idea of making such a movie at a halt until it is the right time when the technology would get advanced enough to meet up to his expectations of making Avatar. He instead started working on making the movie Titanic. For the time being when the idea of making Avatar was at a halt, James Cameron also worked on multiple documentaries such as Ghosts of the Abyss and Aliens of the Deep.

In the interview which was done in 2005 by EW, where James Cameron was also present, the discussion of projects such as The King Kong movie and The Lord Of The Rings movie by Peter Jackson was going on. It was at that time that James Cameron realized that it is the right time for the world to witness his idea of making a movie called Avatar.

By the time the making of the Titanic movie was completed, James Cameron felt it was right to give life to his idea of making the movie called an avatar. It was at this time that the production of the movie began. The production company that accepted the idea of making the avatar and started working on it was 20th Century Fox.

Conclusion

James Cameron conceptualized his idea of making an avatar in an 80-page long script in 1990. However, he had to halve his idea of making an avatar for 15 long years because the technology was not advanced enough to meet up to the expectations of the idea conceptualized by him.

References

1. https://avatar-universe.wifeo.com/documents/Script-Avatar-FR.pdf
2. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=385103