I think in some places around the world, theater intermissions never went away. Like in India, where all their movies tend to be 3+ hours.
But back to Cameron, I found the pee remark kinda odd. You'd think a director would want to make sure their whole movie was worth watching every second. I know it's probably a joke on his end, but I genuinely hate having to go to the bathroom during the movie. If I am perfectly fine taking a whizz during a movie, that's a good indicator that the movie is crap.
Yeah, he more than likely being flippant in defense of the films length; he won't apologize for it, so puts the onus on the movie-goers.
There are three more sequels planned in next three years.
A timeline of events surrounding the films so far -
Avatar 3 and 4 have already shot scenes with child actors to avoid pesky aging.
www.vulture.com
Still, as far as I'd venture a guess, he doesn't appear to be trying to create a "universe," conflating multiple leads in separate, titular films, each with their own sequels, and spin-off Avatar shows exclusive to streaming services. I imagine this is more of a
Lord of the Rings deal, which is perfectly fine. When every, unique member of the tribe starts getting their own movies, then we can talk...
But as I've not a single moment of this first sequel, and have no idea what the exact plans are for subsequent films, I could be entirely wrong, but I DO know I'm anticipating them more than I have any Marvel films over the past decade.