quarantine 'em

Franchises sustained entirely by repetition and advertising and prominence, not because a single person earnestly cares

Avatar could still be a huge deal if anybody wanted to make it so. But the numbers didn't work, so it was allowed to cease. Lucky us

Avatar slumbers in blessèd franchise-death, and the world is safe for now

The really interesting forthcoming moment is when they try to cold restart the thing, having not even kept a pilot light lit this whole time

Letting Avatar go completely dark for five years was a wholly deliberate decision. It might not prove to be a good one, obviously

They're banking on being able to cultivate a "Holy smokes, Avatar is finally back!" reaction. They may get it. Marketing is pretty good

Basically I'm saying that the reason Avatar sank without trace is not that nobody cares about it. Although nobody cares about it

Now, precisely why Hollywood made this decision is an entirely orthogonal question. I blame Cameron's timeline for the sequel