James Cameron had to fight to keep the three-hour run time for his movie 'Avatar: The Way of Water'.

The Hollywood director's sequel to his 2009 film 'Avatar' finally hit cinemas this month and audiences have been treated to a whopping three hours and 12 minutes of big screen action - and the moviemaker has now admitted there was "tension" with the studio over the film's length.

He told Entertainment Weekly: "I think there was a lot of tension around length. And because it's a complicated linear narrative, which is the worst scenario for trying to shorten, you've got a complex story servicing a lot of characters, and it's like dominos falling: This has to happen for that to happen. You're not following a bunch of parallel plot lines in a way that you could take a lot out."

Cameron went on to insist it would have been very difficult to edit the film down. He added: "The hardest thing when you're trying to shorten a film is to hold onto the things that don't advance the plot, that are beautiful or scary or suspenseful for their own sake. Things came out, and then if I felt the pacing was off, we put things back in."

The director insisted the length shouldn't matter as long as the audience is enjoying the film, saying: "Equally important with length is pace - and the order of information and the engagement factor. As long as people are engaged, you’re good to go."

During a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Cameron was asked when audience members should take a bathroom break during the three-hour epic and he replied: "Anytime they want.”

Cameron added: "They can see the scene they missed when they come to see it again."