Avatar’ Quietly Pulled from Disney+ Ahead of Its Theatrical Re-Release

Disney+ quietly removes James Cameron’s Avatar from its streaming library ahead of the film’s latest theatrical re-release next month.

James Cameron’s Avatar has been removed from Disney+ just one month before the movie gets a theatrical re-release. Avatar’s re-released is being pushed by Disney to increase the hype surrounding Avatar: The Way of Water, a sequel that remained in development for over a decade and is, at last, coming to theaters this December.

Now, The theatrical rerelease of “Avatar” was announced as a precursor to the release of the “Avatar” sequel film “Avatar: The Way of Water” on December 16, 2022. Avatar has quietly been removed from Disney+ worldwide.No official reason was provided by Disney or 20th Century Studios for why Avatar was suddenly dropped, though the timing is certainly suspicious.

Avatar made history in 2009 by becoming the first movie to cross the $2.8 billion mark at the international box office, taking over Titanic’s position as the biggest release ever, with $2.2 billion. Avatar still holds the global crown, but since then lost a few positions in the domestic ranking to Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Avengers: Endgame, and Spider-Man: No Way Home. So, it’s easy to understand why Disney is expecting The Way of Water to become another huge box office success and trying to squeeze some more bucks off the first movie. Even so, removing Avatar from Disney+ comes off as a shady move, especially since Disney didn’t give subscribers any kind of warning.