Avatar: The Way of Water director James Cameron has admitted the upcoming sequel would need to be the "third or fourth highest-grossing film in history" to turn a profit.

Cameron told GQ in a recent interview that The Way of Water was "very f***ing" expensive to make, though he didn't share an exact figure to support or refute claims that the production budget was around $250 million. He did, however, refer to the movie as "the worst business case in movie history" before revealing that the long-awaited sequel would need to rank highly in the global box office charts just to break even.

"You have to be the third or fourth highest-grossing film in history," Cameron said about turning a profit on the movie. "That's your threshold. That's your break even."

The original Avatar movie currently sits at the top of the worldwide box office chart with $2.9 billion. Following that is Avengers: Endgame with $2.7 billion, Titanic with $2.2 billion, and Star Wars: The Force Awakens with $2.07 billion. According to Cameron, The Way of Water needs to overtake The Force Awakens and push that movie to the fifth spot, currently occupied by Avengers: Infinity War, to make money.

Cameron previously indicated that the box office performance of The Way of Water and the as-yet-untitled Avatar 3 will ultimately determine whether the fourth and fifth Avatar movies end up getting made, telling Total Film: "The market could be telling us we're done in three months, or we might be semi-done, meaning: 'OK, let's complete the story within movie three, and not go on endlessly,' if it's just not profitable."

Cameron has been notably vague on the future of Avatar past the third installment. As of right now, Avatar: The Way of Water is set to hit theaters on December 16, and Avatar 3 is due out in 2024. The other sequels are also pencilled in, with Avatar 4 eyeing a December 2026 release and Avatar 5 lined up for December 2028 — although Cameron might not helm all of the upcoming sequels if they end up happening.

Adele Ankers-Range is a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. Follow her on Twitter.

Avatar: The Way of Water director James Cameron has admitted the upcoming sequel would need to be the "third or fourth highest-grossing film in history" to turn a profit.

Cameron told GQ in a recent interview that The Way of Water was "very f***ing" expensive to make, though he didn't share an exact figure to support or refute claims that the production budget was around $250 million. He did, however, refer to the movie as "the worst business case in movie history" before revealing that the long-awaited sequel would need to rank highly in the global box office charts just to break even.

"You have to be the third or fourth highest-grossing film in history," Cameron said about turning a profit on the movie. "That's your threshold. That's your break even."

The original Avatar movie currently sits at the top of the worldwide box office chart with $2.9 billion. Following that is Avengers: Endgame with $2.7 billion, Titanic with $2.2 billion, and Star Wars: The Force Awakens with $2.07 billion. According to Cameron, The Way of Water needs to overtake The Force Awakens and push that movie to the fifth spot, currently occupied by Avengers: Infinity War, to make money.

Cameron previously indicated that the box office performance of The Way of Water and the as-yet-untitled Avatar 3 will ultimately determine whether the fourth and fifth Avatar movies end up getting made, telling Total Film: "The market could be telling us we're done in three months, or we might be semi-done, meaning: 'OK, let's complete the story within movie three, and not go on endlessly,' if it's just not profitable."

Cameron has been notably vague on the future of Avatar past the third installment. As of right now, Avatar: The Way of Water is set to hit theaters on December 16, and Avatar 3 is due out in 2024. The other sequels are also pencilled in, with Avatar 4 eyeing a December 2026 release and Avatar 5 lined up for December 2028 — although Cameron might not helm all of the upcoming sequels if they end up happening.

Adele Ankers-Range is a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. Follow her on Twitter.

The Steam Autumn Sale returns today, November 22, and brings with it early Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals that see the likes of Cyberpunk 2077, Stray, and more discounted.

Kicking off Nov. 22 at 10am Pacific / 1pm Eastern / 6PM UK (so 4am on November 23 AEST), the Steam sale will run for exactly one week and end on November 29.

Valve's announcement trailer features its usual long list of heavily discounted games, spanning a library of new and old hits, major publishers, and smaller indie projects. Alongside Cyberpunk 2077 and Stray, Hitman 3, Hades, V Rising, Disney Dreamlight Valley, Slime Rancher 2, and Satisfactory were also shown off to tease the sale.

IGN has reviewed several of these games, saying of CD Projekt Red's latest that "Cyberpunk 2077 throws you into a beautiful, dense cityscape and offers a staggering amount of flexibility in how you choose to take it from there."

We called Stray "a delightful cat-based platforming adventure in a cyberpunk world worth exploring," and said Hades is "a one-of-a-kind rogue-lite that does a brilliant job of marrying its fast-paced action with its persistent, progressing story through a vividly reimagined Greek mythological underworld."

To take these games on the go, Valve's portable PC gaming platform the Steam Deck seems to have eliminated its lengthy waiting list, meaning a reservation is no longer needed. Just make sure the games you pick up are on the Steam Deck Verified Games list if you want optimum performance.

H2 The Best Black Friday Sales and Deals

Andrea Shearon is a freelance contributor for IGN covering games and entertainment. She's worn several hats over her seven-year career in the games industry, with bylines over at Fanbyte, USA Today's FTW, TheGamer, VG247, and RPG Site. Find her on Twitter (@Maajora) or the Materia Possessions podcast chatting about FFXIV, RPGs, and any series involving giant robots.

The Steam Autumn Sale returns today, November 22, and brings with it early Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals that see the likes of Cyberpunk 2077, Stray, and more discounted.

Kicking off at 10am Pacific / 1pm Eastern / 6PM UK (so 4am on November 23 AEST), the sale will run for exactly one week and end on November 29.

Valve's announcement trailer features its usual long list of heavily discounted games, spanning a library of new and old hits, major publishers, and smaller indie projects. Alongside Cyberpunk 2077 and Stray, Hitman 3, Hades, V Rising, Disney Dreamlight Valley, Slime Rancher 2, and Satisfactory were also shown off to tease the sale.

IGN has reviewed several of these games, saying of CD Projekt Red's latest that "Cyberpunk 2077 throws you into a beautiful, dense cityscape and offers a staggering amount of flexibility in how you choose to take it from there."

We called Stray "a delightful cat-based platforming adventure in a cyberpunk world worth exploring," and said Hades is "a one-of-a-kind rogue-lite that does a brilliant job of marrying its fast-paced action with its persistent, progressing story through a vividly reimagined Greek mythological underworld."

To take these games on the go, Valve's portable PC gaming platform the Steam Deck seems to have eliminated its lengthy waiting list, meaning a reservation is no longer needed. Just make sure the games you pick up are on the Steam Deck Verified Games list if you want optimum performance.

Andrea Shearon is a freelance contributor for IGN covering games and entertainment. She's worn several hats over her seven-year career in the games industry, with bylines over at Fanbyte, USA Today's FTW, TheGamer, VG247, and RPG Site. Find her on Twitter (@Maajora) or the Materia Possessions podcast chatting about FFXIV, RPGs, and any series involving giant robots.

Following his announcement that he's taking a break from acting, MCU star Chris Hemsworth has also revealed he's ready to "close the book" on his time as Thor. Speaking to Variety, the actor said he would want his next potential appearance in the MCU to be Thor's final chapter.

"I feel like we'd probably have to close the book if I ever did it again, you know what I mean?" Hemsworth said. "I feel like it probably warrants that. I feel like it'd probably be the finale, but that's not based on anything anyone's told me or any sort of plans. You have this birth of a hero, the journey of a hero, then the death of a hero, and I don't know — am I at that stage? Who knows?"

The end of this year's Thor: Love and Thunder teased that Thor would return. However, director Taika Waititi and Hemsworth were both surprised when the note appeared, as they are currently unaware of plans for a Thor 5. Even with no plans on the books for now, Hemsworth is open to the idea of returning to Thor for one last ride.

"I'm completely open to it, if there is something unique and fresh and unexpected to do with the character and the world. I've always loved the experience. I've been very thankful I've been able to do something different each time."

Hemsworth appeared National Geographic's Limitless, where he learned that he's genetically pre-disposed to develop Alzheimer's disease. Following this, Hemsworth said the experience "really triggered something in me to want to take some time off,” and he's planning to simplify his life and spend more time with his wife and kids after wrapping up his current commitments.

Thor has been a pillar of the MCU for over a decade. Hemsworth has starred in four solo Thor movies, which is the most of any MCU character. He's also appeared in all four Avengers movies.

Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN covering video game and entertainment news. He has over six years of experience in the gaming industry with bylines at IGN, Nintendo Wire, Switch Player Magazine, and Lifewire. Find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.

It looks like an internal logo for Nintendo Switch’s codename, “NX,” has been discovered and leaked online.

The NX logo was found through a prototype build of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe dated October 18, 2016, two days before Nintendo officially revealed the name of the Switch.

The logo itself features a circle with a blue dot that rolls counter-clockwise and features the letters “NX” right next to it. It also sports a similar light blue color as the Wii U’s logo did rather than the Switch’s red color.

The Nintendo Switches Codename was the NX and this was an early Logo / Boot Up animation used during development of the Console ( It was found in the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Prototype ) This was never seen outside Nintendo pic.twitter.com/B1bS5zCKOu

— Paul Kelly (@PaulFelixKelly) November 20, 2022

While we can't fully verify the legitimacy of the boot up sequence, and given that it's Nintendo we will likely not get an official confirmation. But this is a rare glimpse of an early prototype from Nintendo.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe was a Switch port of the Wii U’s Mario Kart 8 but with all of the latest DLC included. The game even got more DLC courses this year as well, in the form of the Booster Course Pass. It has become so successful that it has surpassed those of Mario Kart Wii, making it the best-selling game in the franchise, but it has also become the best-selling racing game in US history.

It seems like Nintendo is in no rush to create Mario Kart 9 since Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is doing so incredibly well. However, a successor is reportedly in active development with some sort of "new twist" on the series formula.

The Switch is nearing its sixth birthday, so a successor to the device could be coming soon. So far, there aren't any details or codenames, but Nintendo said that it is working on not repeating the same mistakes as it did with the transition from the Wii to Wii U.

George Yang is a freelance writer for IGN. He's been writing about the industry since 2019 and has worked with other publications such as Insider, Kotaku, NPR, and Variety.

When not writing about video games, George is playing video games. What a surprise! You can follow him on Twitter @Yinyangfooey

Indiana Jones 5 director James Mangold has revealed that VFX technology was used to de-age Harrison Ford for the opening sequence of the upcoming movie.

Mangold told Empire magazine that Ford was digitally de-aged for the movie's opening minutes because they wanted to give the audience an "adrenaline" rush at seeing a young Indiana Jones swing back into action. The scene will drop Indy into 1944 where he'll have to navigate a castle swarming with Nazis before transitioning into the main adventure.

"I wanted the chance to dive into this kind of full-on George-and-Steven old picture and give the audience an adrenaline blast," Mangold explained. "Then we fall out, and you find yourself in 1969… The audience doesn't experience the change between the '40s and '60s as an intellectual conceit, but literally experiences the buccaneering spirit of those early days… and then the beginning of now."

"My hope is that, although it will be talked about in terms of technology, you just watch it and go, 'Oh my God, they just found footage. This was a thing they shot 40 years ago,'" producer Kathleen Kennedy added. "We're dropping you into an adventure, something Indy is looking for, and instantly you have that feeling, 'I'm in an Indiana Jones movie.'"

The VFX team reportedly used several different techniques to pull the scene together, including the use of a new ILM software that scanned through archived footage of Ford in his earlier years before matching it to the footage shot for Indiana Jones 5. In the scene, he'll be wearing a replica Raiders jacket that is a "thread-for-thread" dupe of the original.

"This is the first time I've seen it where I believe it," Ford admitted, praising the de-ageing technology for successfully bringing a younger version of Indy back to the screen. "It's a little spooky. I don't think I even want to know how it works, but it works. Doesn't make me want to be young, though. I'm glad to have earned my age."

Indiana Jones 5 may be the last time we see Ford don the iconic hat and whip. However, Steven Spielberg has confirmed that the franchise will "certainly continue after that." According to reports, Disney and Lucasfilm are "actively" looking to develop a Disney+ series with the legendary archaeologist, but it's unclear who will star in the lead role.

Adele Ankers-Range is a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. Follow her on Twitter.

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet are full of technical problems, and the community has uncovered a hack that lets your Trainer sprint across the Paldea region at double speed.

First discovered on Reddit, players discovered that you can run twice as fast simply by connecting two controllers at once and holding both left joysticks down.

IGN's Rebekah Valentine tested the hack by using the two Joy-Con controllers attached to the Nintendo Switch and a wirelessly connected Pro Controller, confirming that the exploit does work. According to IGN's findings, it only seems to work for us when we run diagonally and in handheld.

Tested and confirmed the two controllers making you run double fast thing. Wow!!! pic.twitter.com/eHWUmrHPv7

— Rebekah Valentine (@duckvalentine) November 21, 2022

This exploit could definitely change the speedrun game for Scarlet and Violet, although it's very possible it could be removed in a post-launch patch. It's also somewhat cumbersome to pull off, as playing in handheld mode with an extra controller connected appears to be the only way to access the higher speed.

Scarlet and Violet's technical problems were the biggest problem with the games in our review in progress, where we said, "It is, by far, the worst-running Pokémon game I have ever played, and among the worst-running AAA games I’ve played on the Switch so far."

Upon launch, players quickly started to discover some of the issues for themselves, including Pokemon trainers bugged into the middle of battle, extreme framerate drops, falling through the world, infinitely falling into the ground, and more.

For more on Scarlet and Violet, check out how the rare virus Pokérus is no longer present in the new games. Or, check out our Pokémon Scarlet and Violet performance review, where we break down the technical issues players are experiencing.

Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN covering video game and entertainment news. He has over six years of experience in the gaming industry with bylines at IGN, Nintendo Wire, Switch Player Magazine, and Lifewire. Find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.

Netflix has announced that all eight episodes of Vikings: Valhalla Season 2 will be available on January 12, 2023.

Revealed on its Tudum website, Netflix also shared another look of Season 2 with photos (below) of protagonists Leif Eriksson (Sam Corlett), Freydís Eiríksdóttir (Frida Gustavsson), and Harald Sigurdsson (Leo Suter) on their new adventure.

"The whole concept of Season 2 is that we take these three heroes who are in Scandinavia and blow them out of their comfort zones,” said show creator Jeb Stuart. "Season 2 for Harald and Leif is a road trip: It’s Thelma and Louise on the Dnieper River. The two of them will begin this incredible journey. Freydís has to go to Pomerania, which is a very difficult environment.

"Season 2 will show that sometimes when you hang out with the people that are just like you, eat like you, talk like you, you can still run into trouble. So you need to stir the pot, which I think is what the Vikings did," he continued. "So we put together this motley crew of Russian nobles, Muslim astronomers ,and con men, and they shove off from Novgorod."

Vikings: Valhalla's second season was announced back in March after Netflix turned its original 24-episode plan into three separate, eight-episode seasons. Season 1 premiered on the streaming service in February, and with Season 2 coming in January, it will likely be towards the start of 2024 that we see Season 3.

In our 7/10 review of Season 1, IGN said: "Vikings: Valhalla, set 100 years after Vikings, may miss out on some of the magic of the original series, but the might remains intact."

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

Warning: This article contains spoilers for God of War Ragnarok

Eagle-eyed players could potentially spot a major plot twist in God of War Ragnarok fairly early on.

The big, late-game plot twist in God of War Ragnarok is that Týr, the one you rescued early in the game, is not actually the Norse god of war but rather Odin in disguise. While the trickery was caught when Týr kept calling Atreus, Loki, the developers hid a tell the moment you meet him.

“I saw someone finally figure it out the other night,” Williams says about one early Odin tell which is hidden in the subtitles. “When Odin as Týr speaks, there’s no accent on the ‘Y’ in the subtitles.”

So in the subtitles, when Odin speaks it is simply “Tyr,” but when the real Tyr is found in the post-game it’s correctly spelled as “Týr.”

Williams revealed when the team first thought of the idea of having Odin disguise himself as Týr. “We were in a meeting one day, we were talking about the Týr prison and all that, and I said to the writers, I was like, ‘What if Týr’s Odin?’ And they were like, ‘What?’”

After the idea the writers left for a week to see if the plot twist could work and came back to Willaims. “They were like, ‘I think we can pull it off.’”

After that, the developers ran away with the idea to hide clues early on. “There’s so many little clues. You know the prison where you break [Odin/Tyr] out? If you go back in there, in that room, there’s like raven feathers in the corner. You can see it in the broom closet. Even just the stuff he says like he calls Freya ‘Frigg’ just like to dig the knife into her. When you go back it’s — you can see it all.”

The twist was a true gut punch, and even though the real Týr lives at the end, it just goes to show how Odin is a trickster as well as the Allfather. For more on God of War Ragnarok, check out IGN’s perfect score review and for the full interview check out the special episode of Beyond.

Matt T.M. Kim is IGN's News Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.