Avatar Aang film set for special one-week theater screening

For one week, “Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender” will screen in select movie theaters in Los Angeles and New York, Variety has learned exclusively.

While the film is primarily a streaming release and will have its Paramount+ debut on July 25, it has also been set for an awards-qualifying theatrical run from July 24 to 30, with three showtimes per day at the AMC Burbank Town Center 6 in L.A. and the AMC Empire 25 in Manhattan.

The news signals that Paramount will likely be campaigning “Avatar Aang” for next year’s Oscar for best animated feature and other accolades.

Tickets to see the film in theaters will go on sale July 16 at 9am ET/6am PT. As previously announced, there will also be a screening of the film at San Diego Comic-Con on July 24.

The theatrical run will give fans an opportunity to see the franchise relaunched on the big screen as originally intended. “Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender” is the first output of Avatar Studios, which launched at Paramount in 2021 with plans to produce and distribute theatrical films in addition to streaming and linear TV series. Though “Avatar Aang” was initially set to hit theaters in October, the company later announced that Paramount+ had become the exclusive distributor of all Avatar Studios content.

“Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender” continues the story of “Avatar: The Last Airbender” and stars Eric Nam as Aang, Dave Bautista as Tagah, Jessica Matten Katara, Román Zaragoza as Sokka, Steven Yeun as Zuko, and Dionne Quan as Toph.

The official logline for the film states, “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 was directed by Lauren Montgomery and co-directed by Steve Ahn and William Mata. “Avatar: The Last Airbender” creators Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino produced the film alongside Latifa Ouaou and Maryann Garger. Tim Hedrick and Christopher Yost wrote the screenplay from a story written by Konietzko, DiMartino, Hedrick and Kenneth Lin.

“Avatar: The Last Airbender” premiered on Nickelodeon in 2005 and ran for three seasons. It is widely regarded as one of the greatest animated series of all time, and was followed by sequel series “The Legend of Korra,” which premiered in 2012 and ran for four seasons.

-Variety