It showed up out of nowhere, made the most bank in history (for a movie), refused to explain and disappeared for like 15 years, then came back out of nowhere with a sequel movie, a AAA game, and like 3 more movies in the works.
Edit: I think it now has like a Lego line too?
Well it had James Cameron as a director which automatically meant was going to make money. Also it was technically very impressive for the time which was kind of the point. Cameron made a huge deal of how this was a story that he’d wanted to tell for ages but hadn’t been able to until the technology got to the point where he could use it.
After the movie came out there wasn’t really any obvious path forward. It wasn’t supposed to be a franchise it was just a movie that stood on its own. So nothing happened for years.
Then things like the volume came along and it started getting used even in TV productions, and suddenly a whole new level of capability arose and so they decided that they would make another movie only this time why stop at just one?