I wonder if that was by accident.

George Lucas was the first and last person to control merchandising rights for his movies. Which also means he was the first and last person that didn't have to listen to Hasbro about what the fucking Batmobile looks like.

We sat through the 2nd Hobbit movie last night. It's Tolkien fanfic. It includes many characters that weren't in the books, shouldn't be in the movies, and are entirely designed to sell action figures. Ang Lee's Hulk was the first studio film where the actual theatrical release was considered a loss leader for the merchandising; that was 2003. Burger King merchandising tie-ins more than paid for the budget.

You can buy Avatar action figures... but it's not a line where Hasbro can run off and do its own shit and make you have to incorporate some fuckin' playset into the next movie. See, that's the thing: James Cameron makes money from movies, not toys, not costumes, not pencils. I know the guys that turned Pirates of the Caribbean into a movie. They don't get dime one from anything but the movies.

James Cameron is the kinda guy who, when all the American critics spend a year talking about how much Titanic is going to suck, releases it in Japan six weeks before North America just to stick it to the critics. He's the kinda guy who makes movies when he gets bored exploring the Marianas Trench. He's the kinda guy who will fucking finish Avatar at his house when the studio starts getting uppity and insisting he put up or shut up (friend was the DIT on Avatar; the last 6 weeks were in James Cameron's spacious garage).

James Cameron gives a shit about your "pop culture footprint." He's here to make movies.