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The box office dominance of Avatar

Here's the thing about Avatar though--Cameron had new 3D technology developed specifically for the movie, just like he had CGI effects developed for Terminator II. They were movies that literally changed how we watch movies and people wanted to see that at the time.
 
theenglish said:
Here's the thing about Avatar though--Cameron had new 3D technology developed specifically for the movie, just like he had CGI effects developed for Terminator II. They were movies that literally changed how we watch movies and people wanted to see that at the time.
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And avatar 2 will be the debut of the new hfr technology. Or has that been canceled?
 
crookeddy said:
And avatar 2 will be the debut of the new hfr technology. Or has that been canceled?
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I don't know, but Cameron also did new and original effects techniques for The Abyss and Titanic (that I know of). Like Lucas with the original Star Wars he seems to enjoy hiring people to invent the technology to show what he wants to see on screen.
 
It will be interesting to see how his new technology works out and whether it has a major effect on the box office, but I doubt it will be as significant as it was on Avatar 1. As has been pointed out, he works with new technology more often. But while he often has great successes and the new technology is often impressive, I don't remember anyone acting like the CGI in Terminator or Titanic was worth the price of admission by itself or couldn't be truly appreciated on a smaller screen if one waited for video release.
 
I agree, let's not give too much credit to "new technology". It's worth remembering that:

A. The first trailer for Avatar was mocked pretty heavily. "Smurfs" was thrown around quite a bit.
B. The movie did not open spectacularly, compared to the final total. The take actually went up the second week, and did it again several more times before the full run was over.

Word of mouth gave Avatar incredible legs, and it's hard to believe that's just down to "Hey man, the CGI was good and the 3D seemed fairly realistic."
 
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Gotta be the 3D and glowing f/x. As with "Star Wars" (1977) it's an incredibly 1D plot (only the 1977 entry isn't being condescending to the audience, never mind its irony in doing so), what makes the movie stand out are groundbreaking/ahead of its time/shiny new f/x.
 
Tosk said:
I agree, let's not give too much credit to "new technology". It's worth remembering that:

A. The first trailer for Avatar was mocked pretty heavily. "Smurfs" was thrown around quite a bit.
B. The movie did not open spectacularly, compared to the final total. The take actually went up the second week, and did it again several more times over the full run was over.

Word of mouth gave Avatar incredible legs, and it's hard to believe that's just down to "Hey man, the CGI was good and the 3D seemed fairly realistic."
Click to expand...

Which is a great reason for me and others who sometimes do so to not wave off a movie after its opening week. Maybe by the third week. :D

I recall the movie being mocked for ridiculously gigantic eyes, because big eyes always gets emotional responses flowin' from the audience. After a few weeks came all the obligatory political commentary in response because the movie started that ball rolling.
 
Dances with Smurfs!

I did a webcomic parody of Avatar where it was the natives who wanted to knock down their forest and industrialize and the outsiders were forcing them to stay undeveloped to protect their tourism industry.

It ended up with them realizing that if you combine the abilities to make bodies with the ability to transfer minds from one body to another, they can partner up and start an immortality business.
 
It was fun to read old thread posts. It does make me wonder just how many topics retread the same ground for a decade or more.
 
I do love the movie.. but this is my favourite thing to come out of it :)
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I think it's pretty interesting how similar, at least in general terms, the story, themes and morals of Avatar are to those of Star Trek: Insurrection and yet, in contrast, in terms of evaluation the ST film is considered really boring and super-nerdy and morally either unconvincing or outright offensive. Many don't care about or dislike the Ba'ku, think they were selfish to not give up the resource and consider Picard at best too inconsistent at worst really in the wrong, while few consider the Na'vi unsympathetic or the larger group that wants the resource more right or Jake in the wrong.
 
^Insurrection tried to present it as a real moral dilemma with the Baku sitting on a real medical miracle, and many buy that hook line and sinker despite the movie doing nothing whatsoever to earn it or tell you about any truly bad things that will happen if the Federation doesn't get the particles.

Avatar, on the other hand, was so utterly unsubtle about there being no dilemma whatsoever and the humans being 100% wrong that even trying to discuss it would require blatantly ignoring much of the film. People who like the movie won't do that, and those who don't won't discuss the movie in the first place.
 
I don't know if it's still the case, but I think back when he first started working on Avatar 2 Cameron said that it would be focused on Pandora's underwater life and so I think filming that stuff is going to be where at least some of the new tech probably comes into play.
 
Professor Zoom said:
Nope. While the story might have roots from other stories--what doesn't--Avator was an original IP. Most.... wait... ALL of the blockbusters now are from existing IP. Either comic books or reboots or remakes or what have you.
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Well, to be fair, there's a Chris Nolan movie every few years making big money.
 
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