James Cameron’s Avatar was a masterpiece and its sequel ‘The Way of Water’ is amazingly breathtaking as well. While Avatar 2 is breaking records, in some parts of Japan it is breaking theatre projectors as well due to which many people missed out on this epic cinematic piece.
According to Bloomberg’s report, several theatres in Japan face problems with running shows of Avatar 2 in its native frame rate. Reportedly, one theatre in Nagoya had to tone down the frame rate of the movie from 48 FPS to 24 FPS to let the show run without breaking it.
Avatar: The Way of Water is one of the latest films to be made in 48 FPS 3D format after Gemini Man (2019). And it requires the latest projectors or upgraded models that are capable of running 48 FPS movies. As the count for these movies is very low, not all theatres are equipped with the latest tech to run them.
Why Avatar 2 break down projectors?
Still from Avatar 2 trailer
As the movie has been partially shot at 48 FPS, this created a little mixed situation for theatre owners as some action scenes were at 48 FPS while the rest of the movie is at 24 FPS. Although Japanese theatres are equipped according to High Frame Rate (HFR) movies as there are anime movies worth it, some theatres may be outdated probably because of the Japanese way of preserving culture.
There were no official comments made by theatre owners regarding this but this could not have come at any bad timing. Avatar 2 has already crossed the milestone of $500 million worldwide and it has just been 6 days.
The prodigy sequel Avatar: The Way of Water was released on 16 December 2022 and is available in multiple formats such as 48 FPS 3D, 48 FPS 2D, 24 FPS 3D, and 24 FPS 2D. Let’s hope we get to enjoy the movie in its full prime.