Avatar

[SiliasRuby]

A wonderfully explosive spectacle from the man who does it better than everyone else. I also could forgive the horribly written scenes, the exposition ridden dialogue and the sub-par love story because the images were just out of this world. It had a lot of ideas floating around concerning colonization, betrayal, and un-needed suffering of an entire species and some of it was inspired. Some of it fell on the floor but overall this was the best one this year and I loved it wholeheartedly.

[The Perineum Falcon]

He's done it, he's ACTUALLY done it (again!)

'Avatar' tops $1 billion at worldwide box office

there will be no stopping him now

[Stefen]

lol@doubting Jim Cameron.

What was I thinking?

[polkablues]

He channels his autism so much better than George Lucas does.

[Stefen]

I'm a box office guru dumbass, but is it possible that Jim Cameron could eventually have the top two highest grossing movies of all time?

[polkablues]

So I once dated this girl.  She was fun to be around, she did all sorts of exciting things, and, most of all, she was ridiculously good looking.  She was kind of predictable, but just so easy to look at that you were able to ignore it most of the time.  But after spending a little while longer with her, I started noticing all these little problems: she was long-winded to say the least, she had these embarrassingly simplistic conceptions of politics and spirituality that she was convinced were the height of profundity, and when you heard her talk for long enough it became clear that she was kind of racist and didn't even realize it.  Not maliciously so, just in a patronizing, doesn't-know-any-better sort of way.  But seriously, and I can't stress this enough, she looked fantastic.  Except later on, looking back, I realize that she wasn't actually this great unique beauty that she seemed to be at the time.  In truth, she was kind of generic looking, even a little bland, but she was so good with cosmetics that you didn't even notice.  I don't know, I had a fun time with her, but I can't imagine I'll go out of my way to spend time with her in the future.  Honestly, I'll most likely forget about her entirely in a few months.

I don't know why I just thought about all that. 

Oh, I almost forgot to mention, I finally saw Avatar this weekend.  It was pretty good, I guess.

[modage]

Yeah, exactly.  This movie is a landmark, but it's not a classic.

[Fernando]

Just saw it on imax 3d, the only way to see it.

and I loved this, and glad i still can see movie and get lost in it without its faults affecting my viewing (sure there are exceptions), and this is a prime example of that, it may have some cringe worthy scenes but man was the action awesome and the 3D jaw dropping.

The only thing that bothered me deeply was the mich-rod rescue scene, beats me why Cameron did it that way, it felt too lazy.

As for the box office, im glad it's making big bucks, I never expected this to tank but so far it has the lowest % change from the previous week I remember, 2nd weekend -1.8% and 3rd -9.7%.

[Alexandro]

As for the box office, im glad it's making big bucks, I never expected this to tank but so far it has the lowest % change from the previous week I remember, 2nd weekend -1.8% and 3rd -9.7%.

despite my reservations with the film itself, I'm also really glad is making so much money. risky endeavors like this should always be rewarded. i don't know about oscars though, but making billions is more than fair.

[Pas]

I think it's gonna have a 70M+ weekend ... probably gonna finish with 150M maybe?

lol I'm crazy in 17 days it already tops 1 billion dollars haha this will be the highest grossing film of all time (with the 17$ tickets helping for sure). It's gonna get hard to inflation-adjust movies since the value of going to see a movie in the theater is not fixed anymore (3D vs non-3D). If they want an absolute dollar sign they're gonna have to push stuff like Avatar downwards with it's overpriced tickets.

The two ways to adjust don't really work anymore:

1: If a movie in 1960 cost 1$ to see and one today 12, then X12 (which doesn't really work anymore because of the 12$ and 20$ movies opening week prices)
2: Normal total data inflation adjustment also doesn't really work anymore because the price of movie tickets has gone up higher than the total inflation. (1$1960 is less than 20$2009 in absolute money)

And because of the last statement, total individual sales don't really compare as much as they used to (a kid could see whatever movies 10 times in the theater back then for a relatively expensive amount of money, today this is much too expensive for anyone but the richest today.)

[RegularKarate]

imax 3d, the only way to see it.

I disagree, actually.

I saw it at the IMax the first time around and was pretty amazed, but come holiday time, my parents wanted to see it and I had to go again.  No Imax this time so we saw it projected on a 4K digital screen.
BETTER!

The iMax was film and the 3D just didn't look as good.  The picture wasn't clean enough and it was cropped.

Sure, it's good... it's big...it's impressive... but I really think the digital projection is the best way to go.

[Stefen]

My friends and I were dying during this. We caught the red eye showing and brought our flasks. It was good fun. The metheadedness of some of the military dudes was fucking hilarious. "come get some!" haha.

[Sleepless]

Saw it Saturday, 3D but not IMAX. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Okay, so it's no masterpiece, but for popcorn fair it definitely gets 2 thumbs up. Obviously looks spectacular. Favorite line: "If someone has something we want, we make them our enemies so we can justify taking it from them." Main gripes: blunt and obvious transitions into action set-pieces (tra la la, flying is fun, and whatthefuck something's attacking us) - seriously, that scenario happened at least twice. First half was best half. Second half descended into overlong battles which, seriously, just went on forever. Yeah it's got it's failings, but for what it was, I enjoyed it. I can see my kid getting into this in a few year's time, the same way I enjoyed Indy as a kid.

[Pubrick]

lol I'm crazy in 17 days it already tops 1 billion dollars haha this will be the highest grossing film of all time (with the 17$ tickets helping for sure). It's gonna get hard to inflation-adjust movies since the value of going to see a movie in the theater is not fixed anymore (3D vs non-3D). If they want an absolute dollar sign they're gonna have to push stuff like Avatar downwards with it's overpriced tickets.

The two ways to adjust don't really work anymore:

1: If a movie in 1960 cost 1$ to see and one today 12, then X12 (which doesn't really work anymore because of the 12$ and 20$ movies opening week prices)
2: Normal total data inflation adjustment also doesn't really work anymore because the price of movie tickets has gone up higher than the total inflation. (1$1960 is less than 20$2009 in absolute money)

And because of the last statement, total individual sales don't really compare as much as they used to (a kid could see whatever movies 10 times in the theater back then for a relatively expensive amount of money, today this is much too expensive for anyone but the richest today.)

that's true. the way of measuring the success of a film is extremely warped, especially since all they care about these days is opening weekend.

that's why i suggested in another thread, (maybe this one actually) that a better way to talk about a movie's success is the european model of counting the number of tickets sold. this is easier to adjust as a percentage of the population. things like second viewings might be hard to account for but the final number gives you a way better picture of how widespread a film's popularity is.

that method is ultimately irrelevant to anyone but cultural historians or something, cos the only thing that truly matters to ppl in the present is how much money is going in their pockets. and really that's the biggest landmark of Avatar, that 75% of ticket sales have been to 3D showings.. should a movie cost that much to see? i don't think so, but despite everyone feeling this way the world has spoken - we are chumps.

[Pas]

should a movie cost that much to see? i don't think so, but despite everyone feeling this way the world has spoken - we are chumps.

haha yes it's strange that all around people are complaining that going to the movies is too expensive : well apparently not since you're going anyway.

The cost of entertainment is something to wonder about... especially disposable entertainement (I mean that don't leave you with an object in hand). Just going to see some sports game in bar will cost you easily 50$+ per person if you drink the slightest bit and eat. Staying home with the same friends, same beer, same food will probably be about 10$. Just like going to the movies can be about 30$ per persone with food and at home same movie same food you can get for 5$ a couple months later.

Years ago people could talk about ''big screens'' but hell we're all on 6.1 digital surround with 40+inch plasma TVs...

The human is a social creature I guess is the only explanation.