Avatar

Hmm strange the whole movie fans were talking about it.

Not the whole world is talking about it...

Maybe the thing is to let people see what it has to offer so as to create suspense?

Yup, I guess Avatar will be the best film to end this decade, which is full of turns, surprises and twists...

Dun judge it until you see it.

Today in Singapore, it's open in cinema. But I have to wait till my work is done before I watch it.

Just wait for a little while. Hopefully we will be handsomely rewarded.

Yeah, James Cameron has bagged many movie awards and I hope he will continue to surprise us in every movie he makes.

This Movie is now the talk of the town.

When the trailer first came out, many see it with much cynicism. However many in fact after seeing this movie became instant Avatar fans....

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/afp/20091219/tts-entertainment-film-us-canada-people-972e412.html



LOS ANGELES (AFP) - – Canadian filmmaker James Cameron received a star on Hollywood's "Walk of Fame," on the release day of his critically acclaimed new blockbuster "Avatar."

A smiling Cameron was on Friday applauded by 200 supporters and onlookers on Hollywood Boulevard as he accepted the honor flanked by California governor and former movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger and actress Sigourney Weaver, whom he directed in "Avatar."

Cameron said the honor was "an amazing feeling.

"The placement is especially cool -- right in front of the prestigious Egyptian Theatre, right next to Sylvester Stallone, my co-writer on 'Rambo: First Blood Part 2.'

We're together again -- apparently for all eternity now," he said.

The star was laid just hours after his new fantasy spectacular "Avatar" opened in North America, already raising some 3.5 million dollars in ticket receipts in the United States alone, according to industry magazine Variety.

Packed with computer-generated imagery and 3D effects, the film is the first feature from 55-year-old Cameron since 1997's "Titanic," which scooped 11 Oscars, including Best Picture, and became the first movie to earn more than one billion dollars worldwide.

Cameron's new movie is set in the 22nd century on a distant planet called Pandora. In the heart of an immense tropical forest, strife erupts between an indigenous tribe and an Earth-based consortium pillaging for a precious mineral.

He thanked several "Avatar" cast members who attended the ceremony.

"Whatever 'Avatar' becomes, however well it does, whatever accolades it receives, the face of 'Avatar' is these people right here. Most actors work on a film for months at the most. Some of our team worked on the film for almost a year and a half," he said.

"When you work in a room with people for 18 months, you're either going to come out the worst of enemies or the best of friends. We actually became a kind of family and we all still love each other."

Cameron directed Schwarzenegger in the first two "Terminator" movies (1984 and 1991) and in 1994's "True Lies." He previously worked with Weaver in the 1986 science fiction classic "Aliens."

Over 2,380 stars have been laid in the pavement of Hollywood Boulevard to honor the greatest stars of the film, television and music industry.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/94f9e866-ee99-11de-944c-00144feab49a.html?nclick_check=1

Hollywood's heavy investment in 3D has passed its biggest test yet, analysts and cinema executives said yesterday, as they tallied the takings from Avatar , James Cameron's 3D epic.

Imax and RealD, two companies behind rival projection technologies, said they accounted for a disproportionate share of Avatar's $242m of opening weekend sales.

Fox, the News Corp-owned studio, raised its early box office estimates, showing that Avatar beat records for either a "non-sequel" or an adaptation [of a book], with US box office sales of $77m even as northeastern states were battered by heavy snow.

Strong international sales lifted the global total to $242m, $10m more than originally estimated.

Richard Gelfond, chief executive of Imax, said the large-screen exhibitor took 12 per cent of the US box office despite having under 3 per cent of the screens.

RealD, whose equipment was in a third of the US screens showing Avatar , said it accounted for over half of the domestic gross, or nearly $40m.

Mr Gelfond predicted a long box office run for Avatar , making up for the opening weekend snowstorms.

"This movie is going to have very long legs," he said. "This is something that'll deliver over time, not just a weekend."

Imax is not scheduling another release until March 5, when Disney's Alice in Wonderland , by Tim Burton, will open.

"I believe one of the stories about Avatar is going to be its international performance," Mr Gelfond added. "Some of its messages, particularly its environmental message and its anti-military message, resonate with audiences in Europe and Asia."

Analysts said the early box office figures supported exhibitors' investments in 3D, with Lazard estimating that the average 3D screen took 3.1 times as much as the average 2D screen from double the attendance.

"At worst we estimate this would mean Avatar will break even" for Fox, said Ben Stretch, an analyst with MacQuarie Securities, noting that Avatar did not benefit from an established fan base from books or previous films.

Barclays Capital analysts estimated that positive word-of-mouth recommendations could herald $275m-$300m in total domestic takings.

Imax, which has converted about two-thirds of its estate to 3D, grossed $9.5m from 178 US screens and $4.1m from 58 screens outside the US.

Avatar , which cost an estimated $240m to produce and is spending about $150m-$200m on marketing, is to be followed in 2010 by 3D releases from the Toy Story, Twilight, Harry Potter and Shrek franchises.

Cinemas stepped up 3D investment this year, expanding RealD's installed base by 200 per cent. 3D projectors accounted for more than 90 per cent of new digital installations in the first half of 2009, according to analysts at Screen Digest.

http://www.zbrushcentral.com/showthread.php?t=079195

Well yeah Jake would be in trouble if the human return again. Also he might wanna return to life as a human, if say something questions his choices.

Also will the Navi have no qualms about having a hybrid as their new leader? That's a whole new of question.

That will have to see...

But most good movies dun have sequels but I still hope that they can do a sequel.

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/ap/20100104/tbs-us-box-office-1d79e03.html



LOS ANGELES – James Cameron's science-fiction epic "Avatar" had another stellar weekend with $68.3 million domestically, shooting past $1 billion worldwide, only the fifth movie ever to hit that mark.

No. 1 for the third-straight weekend, 20th Century Fox's "Avatar" raised its domestic total to $352.1 million after just 17 days. The film added $133 million overseas to lift its international haul to $670 million, for a worldwide gross of $1.02 billion.

"Avatar" opened two weekends earlier with $77 million, a strong start but far below dozens of other blockbusters that debuted as high as $158 million. But business for other blockbusters usually tumbles in following weekends, while "Avatar" revenues barely dropped over the busy Christmas and New Year's weekends.

"It's like a runaway freight train. It just keeps doing business," said Fox distribution executive Bert Livingston. "Here's what's happening: I think everybody has to see `Avatar' once. Even people who don't normally go to the movies, they've heard about it and are saying, `I have to see it.' Then there's those people seeing it multiple times."

"Avatar" was Cameron's first film since 1997's "Titanic," the biggest modern blockbuster with $1.8 billion worldwide.

Cameron now is the only filmmaker to direct two movies that have topped $1 billion. Along with "Titanic," the others are "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" at $1.13 billion, "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" at $1.06 billion and "The Dark Knight" at a fraction over $1 billion, according to box-office tracker Hollywood.com.

With "Avatar" closing in on No. 2 film "The Return of the King," Cameron is in striking distance of having the two top-grossing movies globally.

"Avatar" has had a price advantage over those other billion-dollar movies. About 75 percent of its domestic business has come from theaters showing it in digital 3-D presentation, those tickets typically costing a few dollars more than admissions for the 2-D version.

Finishing at No. 2 for the weekend was Robert Downey Jr.'s crime caper "Sherlock Holmes" with $38.4 million. The Warner Bros. film lifted its domestic total to $140.7 million after 10 days in theaters.

In third place was 20th Century Fox's family tale "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel" with $36.6 million. It raised its 10-day total to $157.3 million.

The top-three movies, along with solid holdovers that included Universal's "It's Complicated" at No. 4 with $18.7 million, steered Hollywood to a big start to 2010 after a year of record revenue.

Hollywood finished 2009 with $10.6 billion domestically, easily surpassing the previous record of $9.7 billion in 2007, according to Hollywood.com.

Factoring in today's higher admission prices, the year was strong but not a modern record-breaker for number of tickets sold. According to Hollywood.com, domestic admissions came in at 1.42 billion in 2009, the most in the last five years, though well below the modern record of 1.6 billion in 2002.

In Hollywood's glory years of the 1930s and '40s, before television eroded the movie audience, estimated movie attendance ran as high as 4 billion some years.

Studios began 2010 with a headstart over last year. Overall revenues came in at $230 million, up 50 percent from New Year's weekend in 2009, when "Marley & Me" was No. 1 with $24.3 million.

Like "Titanic" 12 years ago, "Avatar" has fairly clear sailing now that the holidays are over. Hollywood is entering a slow season, when fewer big movies arrive and competition is lighter.

"Titanic" lingered as the No. 1 film for months leading up to the Academy Awards, where it won 11 Oscars, including best picture and director.

"Avatar" also proved a critical favorite with strong Oscar potential. Cameron broke new ground in combining live-action, digitally-enhanced performances, visual effects and 3-D presentation to immerse viewers in his futuristic tale of humans and aliens on a distant moon.

"Leave it to James Cameron to do this. To not only set the technical world on fire, the visual world on fire, but also the box-office world on fire 12 years after `Titanic,'" said Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Final figures will be released Monday.

1. "Avatar," $68.3 million.

2. "Sherlock Holmes," $38.4 million.

3. "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel," $36.6 million.

4. "It's Complicated," $18.7 million.

5. "The Blind Side," $12.7 million.

6. "Up in the Air," $11.4 million.

7. "The Princess and the Frog," $10 million.

8. "Did You Hear About the Morgans?", $5.2 million.

9. "Nine," $4.3 million.

10. "Invictus," $4.1 million.

___

On the Net:

http://www.hollywood.com/boxoffice

___

Universal Pictures and Focus Features are owned by NBC Universal, a unit of General Electric Co.; Sony Pictures, Sony Screen Gems and Sony Pictures Classics are units of Sony Corp.; Paramount and Paramount Vantage are divisions of Viacom Inc.; Disney's parent is The Walt Disney Co.; Miramax is a division of The Walt Disney Co.; 20th Century Fox, Fox Searchlight Pictures and Fox Atomic are owned by News Corp.; Warner Bros. and New Line are units of Time Warner Inc.; MGM is owned by a consortium of Providence Equity Partners, Texas Pacific Group, Sony Corp., Comcast Corp., DLJ Merchant Banking Partners and Quadrangle Group; Lionsgate is owned by Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.; IFC Films is owned by Rainbow Media Holdings, a subsidiary of Cablevision Systems Corp.; Rogue Pictures is owned by Relativity Media LLC; Overture Films is a subsidiary of Liberty Media Corp.

Source:ComingSoon.net
January 3, 2010


ComingSoon.net reports that James Cameron's Avatar has reached $1.02 billion at the worldwide box office after just 17 days, surpassing the $1 billion earned by The Dark Knight in 2008. It also broke Spider-Man's third weekend record domestically:

James Cameron's Avatar (20th Century Fox) continues to be one of the biggest box office phenomenons of the decade--much like Titanic in the prior decade--having grossed $350 million after just 17 days and crossing the one billion mark worldwide. It set a new Near Year's Day weekend box office record with its estimated $68.3 million, down just 10% from Christmas weekend and making it the highest third weekend gross for a movie domestically (surpassing the $45 million made by Spider-Man in 2002).

By next weekend, Cameron's comeback will hit the $400 million mark and by next Sunday, it should pass Michael Bay's Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen to become the highest-grossing movie of 2009, as well as breaking into the Top 10 highest-grossing movies (domestically) of all time.

Internationally, Avatar has grossed $670.2 million which brings its worldwide total to $1.02 billion, making it the fourth-highest grossing movie worldwide EVER, and that's after being in theaters for only 17 days, too. It has surpassed the worldwide gross for The Dark Knight and only needs $46 million more to beat Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. (Currently, Cameron's Titanic still holds the worldwide grossing record with $1.84 billion with $600 million of that domestically.)

What's so remarkable about the movie's success, besides how much of that money is being made in 3D and IMAX venues (with many daily sell-outs still being reported ), is that Avatar is also the biggest non-sequel since George Lucas' original Star Wars and Steven Spielberg's E.T.: The Extraterrestrial. By the end of January, it should have surpassed both of their non-adjusted box office takes. It's still a few days behind Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight, which had the benefits of opening in summer, while Avatar will be facing moviegoers' return to school and work starting tomorrow, so we'll have to see whether it can cross the $533 million mark to become the second-highest grossing movie after Cameron's own Titanic.