771 replies to this topic

[phx]

Whatever happened to the 3D fascination, anyways? For a while everything was 3D.

 

It goes in cycles. It’s popular for a short while every few years.

[Nparker]

3D movies were busting out all over not so long ago.

[Victoria Watcher]

It has missed its estimates. But might have legs.




SATURDAY PM UPDATE: 20th Century Studios/Disney’s Avatar: The Way of Water minted an estimated $45M Saturday which will put the James Cameron directed sequel at a 3-day opening of $135M per sources. That’s the 6th best domestic debut in December after Spider-Man: No Way Home ($260.1M), Force Awakens ($247.9M), Last Jedi ($220M), Rise of Skywalker ($177.3M) and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story ($155M).

Despite Avatar: The Way of Water missing its $150M-$175M projections, the town doesn’t seem bothered –nor do they believe that the sky is falling for cinema– particularly for a movie that cost according to sources (not Disney) at about around $460M before P&A.

https://deadline.com...1235200714/amp/

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 18 December 2022 - 07:51 AM.

[Mike K.]

“At about around!” I love it!

[Barrrister]

I suspect that a lot of people have stopped going to movies never to return. Afraid that I am one of them. 

[Mike K.]

That’s probably why the studio isn’t worried. They’ll make 5x the money through digital formats.

[Victoria Watcher]

That’s probably why the studio isn’t worried. They’ll make 5x the money through digital formats.

Yes indeed the dynamics of the revenue model have changed.

This is a Disney film so not sure if it’s already committed to the D+ streaming service. But D+ can and does even charge members extra for some films. At least to start.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 18 December 2022 - 08:08 AM.

[Barrrister]

Not from me they wont since I just pick up DVDs from the library. Apparently, according to the library, more and more people are taking out DVDs. The numbers have totally skyrocketed. 

 

I like their movie guarentee, if you dont like the movie you get your money back (and yes they are free to start with)

[Mike K.]

The library pays a fee on your behalf, but you pay them through your taxes.

[Barrrister]

Since I have to pay taxes regardless I might as well get good use of the videos. 

[Mike K.]

Well, if you didn’t watch so many DVDs, the library would pay less in licensing fees, and you’d keep more of your money in your pocket.

[Matt R.]

Planning on going to the Fritz tonight, Wakanda forever!

[Victoria Watcher]

After a 13 year gap, Avatar: The Way of Water is finally here. James Cameron’s first of many planned sequels to Avatar, the world’s highest grossing film of all time (which itself topped Cameron’s own Titanic as the highest grossing film of all time), opened below expectations with $134 million. Yes, this is still a huge opening, but it is not the sort of start you would hope for on a film that, as Cameron claims, would “have to be the third or fourth highest-grossing film in history” to break even. With that said (and whether or not that statement regarding the film’s breakeven point is fully accurate), this is not a film to count out, and it could see strong numbers for the rest of the year and well into the new year. Either way, it’s great to have a heavy hitter back in theaters again, and Avatar: TWOW led an overall box office of $152 million, making this the second highest grossing weekend of the past five months.

There are a few ways of looking at the opening of The Way of Water, and they boil down to the question of if Avatar 2 will end up as a typical huge blockbuster or if it plays like another James Cameron box office phenomenon. On one hand, it’s “just” the fifth best opening of the year and 37th biggest of all time, tied with The Batman (though it may end up over or under once the actuals come out) but not exactly numbers fit for the sequel to the film that broke nearly every box office record in the books. On the other hand, it’s the sixth best opening ever for December, the month’s best non-MCU and non-Star Wars opening, 74% ahead of the first Avatar ($77 million) and 5.5% ahead of this year’s own box office champ Top Gun: Maverick ($127 million). If it plays like The Batman, which went on to gross $369 million (a 2.8 multiplier, better legs than any of this year’s MCU films), then it’d be hard not to be underwhelmed by the sequel, even putting aside its allegedly gargantuan budget (such a finish would be less than half of the first Avatar’s $750 million cume in its original release). However, playing closer to Top Gun: Maverick, which had a 5.7 multiplier and grossed $719 million, is not out of the question, which would consequently put it in the league of Cameron’s other box office smashes. Ending up somewhere in between seems like the likeliest bet, but it’s ultimately too early to make any calls on this one.

We’ll get a better sense of the film’s fate over the next two weeks which can essentially play like a giant long weekend with Christmas falling next Sunday, New Year’s the following Sunday, and plenty of days off school and work between now and then. There’s reason to believe the legs on TWOW will be unusually strong. For one, around 1/5th of the film’s presales are post-opening weekend, compared to a negligible amount on the typical big blockbuster. We’re also already seeing concrete signs that this is less front-loaded than the average franchise film, with Saturday’s gross coming in at 16% below Friday’s. That’s the best Saturday hold for a $100+ million opener since Frozen II in 2019 which actually grew 19% in its second day of release (for comparison’s sake, Top Gun: Maverick dropped 27% Friday to Saturday and Spider-Man: No Way Home dropped 39%). No big blockbusters are coming out until Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania releases on February 17th, and while that’s no guarantee of strong legs, it does mean TWOW has the premium screens largely to itself for two months.

 

https://www.boxoffic.../?ref_=bo_hm_hp

 

 

No big blockbusters are coming out until Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania releases on February 17th, and while that’s no guarantee of strong legs, it does mean TWOW has the premium screens largely to itself for two months.

 

 

 

That's probably key.  People will go to the movies over the holidays, and if this is easily the best film on the roster, that's what people will go to.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beyond Avatar 2, there’s hardly any action at the box office. When Avatar opened in the same weekend in 2009, the rest of the box office grossed a total of $61 million. This weekend, the runners up had a collective cume of a pitiful $18 million. Yes, the slate of new titles this month would likely have been stronger if there weren’t a high profile sequel sucking up all the oxygen, but even in 2019 when Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker opened in the pre-Christmas weekend, the other films in theaters totaled $70 million. It would be nice to say that Avatar 2 is leading a strong end of the year box office wave, but it is more accurate to say it is keeping the box office on life support. 

 

Hopefully the next week’s releases, which include Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, Babylon, and Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody, will help balance things out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I hope that Whitney Houston film is good, I'd like to see it.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 18 December 2022 - 09:01 PM.

[Victoria Watcher]

Director James Cameron has been clear about the stakes for his long-delayed sequel “Avatar: The Way of Water.” The science-fiction epic is so expensive, he says, it represents “the worst business case in movie history,” meaning it needs to become one of the three or four top-grossing movies of all time just to break even.

 

By that metric, “The Way of Water” needs to clear $2 billion to justify its price tag and please Disney, which holds the rights to “Avatar” after acquiring 20th Century Fox in 2019. The studio spent a jaw-dropping $350 million to produce and even more to market the grand return to Pandora, making it one of the costliest tentpoles ever.

 

Only five movies in history — 2009’s “Avatar” ($2.9 billion globally), “Avengers: Endgame” ($2.7 billion), “Titanic” ($2.1 billion), “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” ($2.07 billion) and “Avengers: Infinity War” ($2.05 billion) — have surpassed the $2 billion mark, and those were in the best of conditions. In pandemic times, it’ll be that much harder. Even as a sequel to the highest-grossing movie of all time, does “The Way of Water” have what it takes to become the sixth?

 

https://variety.com/...ron-1235464557/

[todd]

A Christmas Carol 1971: https://www.youtube....bed/iN6IMZFwY50

  

How The Grinch Stole Christmas: https://www.dailymot...m/video/x3iht2g

  

Santa's Surprise - Paramount Pictures 1947: https://www.youtube....bed/UJCUJ4bCy8E

  

Christmas Comes But Once a Year - 1936: https://www.youtube....bed/2p17kBv8F5I

[Victoria Watcher]

Avatar: The Way of Water scored $18.3M yesterday, +13% over Monday, and the best Tuesday of 2022, besting Rise of Gru‘s $17.5M. This takes the domestic running total of the James Cameron directed sequel to $168.6M. Global Tuesday was $58.5M. Overseas running total is $387.3M for a running WW total of $555.9M.

Imax stateside did $2.2M, 12% of Tuesday’s ticket sales. Imax share was down from Monday due to discount ticket Tuesday. That share of sales will jump up today.


https://deadline.com...1235204016/amp/

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 21 December 2022 - 04:43 PM.

[Mike K.]

There we go, now profitable.

[Victoria Watcher]

With strong and consistent mid-weeks, James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water has crested the $600M mark worldwide. This comes after it rapidly passed $500M global earlier this week, following its $441.6M opening weekend. The current worldwide total through Wednesday is $609.7M including $426.8M from the international box office.

The offshore cume lifts Way of Water to the No. 5 spot for a Hollywood title on the 2022 overseas chart, having now surpassed Thor: Love and Thunder and The Batman.


https://deadline.com...1235205208/amp/


Domestically, as Anthony has reported, Way of Water scored the 2nd biggest Wednesday of 2022.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 22 December 2022 - 12:07 PM.

[Victoria Watcher]

'Avatar' sequel accused of 'romanticizing' and 'glorifying' colonialism

The film also received criticism for alleged 'cultural appropriation'

https://www.foxnews....ing-colonialism

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 22 December 2022 - 01:58 PM.

[lanforod]

I guess i better watch it twice to ensure I can form my own opinion on that matter.