After months of digging in its heels, saying Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender would skip theaters and land directly on Paramount+ amid fan outcry and one of the worst full-scale leaks to hit a fandom perpetually in duress, the aged-up Nickelodeon animated film will get a limited-time theatrical run for one week only.
According to Variety, in tandem with Avatar Aang releasing on the streamer on July 25, it will also have a theatrical run from July 24 through the 30. Unfortunately, its bottlenecked theatrical release window won’t be nationwide; instead, it will have the exclusive coastal privilege of three showtimes a day at AMC Burbank 8 in Los Angeles, California, and AMC Empire 25 in New York. Tickets go on sale July 16 at 9 a.m. ET/6 a.m. PT.
The reason behind the last-second flip-flop boils down to awards season nominations. As Variety notes, Avatar Aang‘s theatrical run is an awards-qualifying one. The trade posits that Paramount sees value in the franchise for Oscar season in the best animated feature category.
While this news certainly comes as a sigh of relief to fans frustrated by Paramount changing the course of the first of three planned Avatar animated feature films originally set to release in theaters this October, it’s certainly a consolation prize to see the Gaang all grown up on the big screen as they, and all the hard-working animators at Flying Bark Productions, deserve.
Here’s a plot synopsis for the film:
Avatar Aang, the world’s last Airbender, learns of an ancient power that could save his culture from extinction. With the help of his friends, he embarks on a global quest to find it before it falls into the wrong hands and threatens to upend the peace they sacrificed everything to achieve.
The film stars Eric Nam as Aang, Dave Bautista as Tagah, Jessica Matten as Katara, Román Zaragoza as Sokka, Steven Yeun as Zuko, and Dionne Quan as Toph.
Outside of its theatrical run, fans can catch a screening of Avatar Aang at San Diego Comic-Con on July 24.
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