The box office dominance of Avatar

[JD]

It is kind of a weird situation, it's the #1 movie all time, which would lead one to believe that it's the most popular movie of all time, but nobody seems to give a shit about it.
I do kind of wonder if that is at least partially Fox and/or James Cameron's fault, since nobody has really done anything the IP up until the last few years. I have to wonder if they had kept a consistent stream of books, comics, and other things coming if that might have kept the interest higher. I've always been a bit shocked that they pretty left it alone between the movie coming out ajd the Animal Kingdom land opening.

 

[gblews]

People went to experience that more than they cared about the movie itself, I suspect.

The 3D alone cannot possibly explain how well this movie did at the box office. But I do think technology had a significant affect on the movie's popularity.

I think the state of the art mo-cap, which allowed the actors to fully emote through the digital "make-up", was a bigger factor than the 3D in bringing people out to the theater for multiple viewings. People saw the mo-cap but more so the actors particularly Zoe Saldana, who acted circles around Sam (whats his name). The movie was just so damned realistic.

Cameron knows how to use tech without allowing it to overwhelm his movies. People don't pay to see a movie multiple times to see tech.

 

[crookeddy]

Cameron knows how to use tech without allowing it to overwhelm his movies. People don't pay to see a movie multiple times to see tech.

So what did they see Avatar multiple times for?

 

[gblews]

So what did they see Avatar multiple times for?

It believe was the movies' realism, IMO. There were several news reports of people being in a state of depression because Pandora was not real. The world was totally immersive with the attention to detail the language, the presentation of the Na'vi culture etc. The enviornmental themes in the movie also struck a chord with many.

Plus there is the prospect that if a corporate entity felt it was in their financial interest, and tit thought it could get away with it, I have no problem believing it would do something like what the company did in the movie. This part of the story touches on racism, corporate greed, elitism, military overreach.

If the movie had nothing but 3D to offer, there is no way the movie would have made the kind of money it made.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

I work in a software company with a lot of employees from many places (UK, China, India, Russia, Romania among them) who are not really into pop culture and not really into sci-fi at all (go figure! which is no fun for me). However, they all were very excited about Avatar when it came out, the whole CG/3D/beautiful prog rock imagery thing really clicked and they all were very curious to *experience* that. I think it resonated well at the time but it was hard to capture at home and was an event that wasn't really built to be viewed over and over again to diminishing returns. My two cents on it anyway.

(BTW, I've always thought that whole Pandora depression stuff was mostly hype and clickbait capitalizing on said zeitgeist moment)

 

[M'rk son of Mogh]

It is kind of a weird situation, it's the #1 movie all time, which would lead one to believe that it's the most popular movie of all time, but nobody seems to give a shit about it.

Normal people enjoyed the movie.

Message board posters who think they're smart for seeing similarities between other movies are simply louder than those normal people.

 

[crookeddy]

It believe was the movies' realism, IMO. There were several news reports of people being in a state of depression because Pandora was not real. The world was totally immersive with the attention to detail the language, the presentation of the Na'vi culture etc. The enviornmental themes in the movie also struck a chord with many.

Plus there is the prospect that if a corporate entity felt it was in their financial interest, and tit thought it could get away with it, I have no problem believing it would do something like what the company did in the movie. This part of the story touches on racism, corporate greed, elitism, military overreach.

If the movie had nothing but 3D to offer, there is no way the movie would have made the kind of money it made.

The depression thing was fake news, almost certainly.

As for the realism, I strongly disagree. To me, the movie reminded me of a Saturday morning cartoon with good graphics. The only character I liked and admired was the "evil" colonel or whatever he was.

 

[Reyman]

I work in a software company with a lot of employees from many places (UK, China, India, Russia, Romania among them) who are not really into pop culture and not really into sci-fi at all (go figure! which is no fun for me). However, they all were very excited about Avatar when it came out, the whole CG/3D/beautiful prog rock imagery thing really clicked and they all were very curious to *experience* that. I think it resonated well at the time but it was hard to capture at home and was an event that wasn't really built to be viewed over and over again to diminishing returns. My two cents on it anyway.

(BTW, I've always thought that whole Pandora depression stuff was mostly hype and clickbait capitalizing on said zeitgeist moment)

This has been my experience too. I've also heard a lot of people say they wanted to get up off there seat at the cinema to walk through Pandora.

Anyway even if Endgame overtakes Avatar. Avatar 2 will be out in a couple of years, so Endgame probably won't be at the top for long.

 

[crookeddy]

This has been my experience too. I've also heard a lot of people say they wanted to get up off there seat at the cinema to walk through Pandora.

Anyway even if Endgame overtakes Avatar. Avatar 2 will be out in a couple of years, so Endgame probably won't be at the top for long.

Nobody likes avatar anymore, so the sequel probably won't make even half as much.

 

[Kai "the spy"]

Nobody likes avatar anymore, so the sequel probably won't make even half as much.

1) Not true.
2) Nobody even knew "Avatar" ten years ago.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

I do think the sequel(s) have their work cut out for them. I may be proven wrong but I just don't see them having that same appeal as the initial movie did, they may do well but I'd be surprised if they were near as big but then again it is Cameron who you can't count out at the box office.

 

[Gavin70]

I do think the sequel(s) have their work cut out for them. I may be proven wrong but I just don't see them having that same appeal as the initial movie did, they may do well but I'd be surprised if they were near as big but then again it is Cameron who you can't count out at the box office.

Clearly James Cameron and 20th Century Fox had enough belief that there was interest to move ahead with 4 sequels. That seems pretty confident if there's not much obvious interest. Possibly they're working with more information than us?

 

[Tosk]

they may do well but I'd be surprised if they were near as big

Why do they need to be? You don't have to beat the #1 movie of all time* to be a profitable movie.

*For now.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Why do they need to be? You don't have to beat the #1 movie of all time* to be a profitable movie.

*For now.

Why do they need to be? Why are they re-releasing Avengers?

But seriously I agree, they don't need to be necessarily but obviously the topic comes up (as it has here) when talking about Avatar and I was just saying what I thought about their chances.

 

[suarezguy]

The thing about Avengers audiences, it’s got a huge audience, but also a huge amount of people who already decided they don’t like it.

So Avatar got ‘curious’ viewers and Endgame did not.

It's kind of weird that, IIRC, there wasn't much conservative reaction to, let alone backlash against, Avatar. Maybe those who disliked it did just think it's too popular to attack now but it'll go away, bite your tongue, open controversy and highlighting the themes would be worse.

 

[EnderAKH]

It's kind of weird that, IIRC, there wasn't much conservative reaction to, let alone backlash against, Avatar. Maybe those who disliked it did just think it's too popular to attack now but it'll go away, bite your tongue, open controversy and highlighting the themes would be worse.

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Mov...k-movies-political-messaging/story?id=9484885

"'Avatar' is a thinly disguised, heavy-handed and simplistic sci-fi fantasy/allegory critical of America from our founding straight through to the Iraq War," wrote Nolte. "It looks like a big-budget animated film with a garish color palette right off a hippie's tie dye shirt."

"I wasn't infuriated by 'Avatar.' I was infuriated by the way it framed the culture-war debate... as if there are no secular people on the right," Jonah Goldberg, editor-at-large of the National Review, told ABC News.

"Like the holiday season itself, the science fiction epic is a crass embodiment of capitalistic excess wrapped around a deeply felt religious message," Conservative writer and blogger Ross Douthat wrote in an op-ed in the New York Times. "'Avatar' is Cameron's long apologia for pantheism -- a faith that equates God with Nature, and calls humanity into religious communion with the natural world."

 

[Noname Given]

This has been my experience too. I've also heard a lot of people say they wanted to get up off there seat at the cinema to walk through Pandora.

Anyway even if Endgame overtakes Avatar. Avatar 2 will be out in a couple of years, so Endgame probably won't be at the top for long.

Avatar 2's release on a Friday will probably result in the following headline come the following Monday:

"Yet another sequel VASTLY underperfroms at the box office...was 13 years too long between films?...yes, probably..."

 

[JD]

Normal people enjoyed the movie.

Message board posters who think they're smart for seeing similarities between other movies are simply louder than those normal people.

Sure, when it came out, but then it pretty much died off for years, and when it did start to come back, the reactions has been pretty much this:

. I would have expected the #1 movie of all time to be a Star Wars or MCU level cultural phenomenon that went on past the movie for years or even decades.

 

[M'rk son of Mogh]

Really?

I would never call "Gone With the Wind" a Star Wars level phenomenon, and yet, when adjusted for inflation, it's number 1 of all time (at least, domestically).

#1 doesn't have to have Star Wars and Avengers hype surrounding it, necessarily.

 

[JD]

Things were also a lot different when Gone With the Wind came out, they didn't have anywhere the kind of merchandising and tie-ins that we do now.