Inside James Cameron’s High-Frame-Rate Gamble for Avatar: Fire and Ash — And Why Christopher Nolan Isn’t Buying It

Avatar: Fire and Ash is almost here, and James Cameron is back to playing with the tech dials. He just laid out how much high frame rate he used this time, why he did it, and where it actually helps instead of getting in the way. Also: early box office math looks solid, even if it might open a touch softer than The Way of Water.

So, how much high frame rate are we talking?

Cameron told Discussing Film that roughly 40% of Fire and Ash runs in high frame rate. The interviewer noted it felt more seamless this time around, which tracks with how Cameron says he deployed it. He also made a point of saying high frame rate isn’t a format like 3D or 70mm — it’s more of a tool he uses to make 3D look better.

"High frame rate shouldn’t be thought of as a format. 3D is a format. 70mm is a format. High frame rate is a way of improving 3D. So, it’s an authoring tool."

He laid this out in a video posted by DiscussingFilm on December 10, 2025, and then broke down exactly where it shows up in the movie:

• Underwater: Every underwater sequence in The Way of Water and in Fire and Ash runs in high frame rate to create that super-crisp, otherworldly clarity.
• Above water: He only flips to HFR if a shot has strobing/judder from fast pans or quick side-to-side movement. Otherwise, it stays at the standard speed.

If you felt Way of Water looked unusually smooth when things went below the surface, you weren’t imagining it. Those underwater stretches were rendered at 48 frames per second — double the usual 24 — which naturally looks slicker and can clean up motion artifacts in 3D. Cameron’s basically using HFR as a scalpel, not a sledgehammer.

Quick tech sanity check

Worth clarifying: theatrical high frame rate is not the same thing as the dreaded motion smoothing on your TV. Motion smoothing is that setting modern TVs use to fake extra frames on 24 fps movies, and it often makes films look like soap operas. Back in 2018, Christopher Nolan and a group of directors sent a letter through the DGA’s Creative Rights Committee urging manufacturers to make it easier to present movies as intended on home screens — essentially, turn the smoothing off by default, or at least make it simple to disable. Great for sports; not great for movies.

And in the broader frame rate debate, Neill Blomkamp has said the hyper-real look of 48 fps strips out some of the movie-ness he likes. He’s firmly a 24 fps guy. Totally fair — not everyone wants the same flavor of immersion, and Cameron’s approach here tries to split the difference by using HFR only when it actually helps.

Money talk: what’s Fire and Ash expected to open to?

The production budget is around $250 million, per The Numbers. Cameron told Variety he expects the film to make money, but he was blunt about the real question being the profit margin — and whether that’s enough to justify more trips to Pandora.

Early projections say he might not need to stress too much. Deadline is tracking Fire and Ash for a domestic debut in the $100–130 million range, with $110 million as the current midpoint. For context, The Way of Water opened to $134.1 million. So this would be just a shade under that, which is still a very healthy start.

Bottom line

Cameron’s doubling down on high frame rate where it actually makes a difference — underwater and in motion-heavy shots — and otherwise keeping the classic 24 fps vibe. It’s a smart, targeted use of a tool that often gets misused. As for the box office, the forecast looks sturdy even if it doesn’t quite match Way of Water out of the gate.

Avatar: Fire and Ash opens December 19. What are you expecting on opening weekend?