Avatar (the movie) and its Sequels

LittleBuford

Well-Known Member
Is this meant to be sarcastic or mocking? I honestly can't tell anymore. The fact is, "legs" is a common term to describe how well a movie does over the long term.

In any case, while the sequel is still doing well the daily grosses are starting to fall off compared to the original. It does not appear to have the same legs as the original but is obviously a rousing success and we can hopefully put to bed the myth that "nobody cares about Avatar".

Original:

Jan 27Wednesday1$3,137,588-1.9%-17.3%3,141$998$561,317,325

Way of Water:

Jan 25Wednesday1$1,436,130-28.5%-23%3,790$378$603,434,732
I joked about the term earlier too. It just sounds funny to me. I don’t think @_caleb meant anything bad by it.
 

tcool123

Well-Known Member
Is this meant to be sarcastic or mocking? I honestly can't tell anymore. The fact is, "legs" is a common term to describe how well a movie does over the long term.

In any case, while the sequel is still doing well the daily grosses are starting to fall off compared to the original. It does not appear to have the same legs as the original but is obviously a rousing success and we can hopefully put to bed the myth that "nobody cares about Avatar".

Original:

Jan 27Wednesday1$3,137,588-1.9%-17.3%3,141$998$561,317,325

Way of Water:

Jan 25Wednesday1$1,436,130-28.5%-23%3,790$378$603,434,732
We can only do that once we all see trick or treaters wearing their best Na’vi costumes 😉
 

Disney Analyst

Well-Known Member
Is this meant to be sarcastic or mocking? I honestly can't tell anymore. The fact is, "legs" is a common term to describe how well a movie does over the long term.

In any case, while the sequel is still doing well the daily grosses are starting to fall off compared to the original. It does not appear to have the same legs as the original but is obviously a rousing success and we can hopefully put to bed the myth that "nobody cares about Avatar".

Original:

Jan 27Wednesday1$3,137,588-1.9%-17.3%3,141$998$561,317,325

Way of Water:

Jan 25Wednesday1$1,436,130-28.5%-23%3,790$378$603,434,732

I don’t think it will surpass the original, but it had a good run besting it for a while.

9309E842-105A-4803-AA50-4FA6D55F235F.jpeg
 

DCBaker

Premium Member
“Earlier this week, James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water became the No. 5 highest-grossing movie ever worldwide, and, as expected, has now surfed to the No. 4 position on the all-time chart. In so doing, it leaves Star Wars: The Force Awakens in its wake with nearly $2.075B globally.

Through Friday, the worldwide gross on the 20th Century Studios/Disney/Lightstorm epic Avatar sequel is $2,074.8M, overtaking Force Awakens’ $2.071B. This means that Cameron has three of the top four movies ever globally alongside the original Avatar at No. 1 and Titanicat No. 3. Avatar: The Way of Water will top Titanic in the coming week or so on a global basis. However, Paramount is doing a Titanic domestic rerelease in time for Valentine’s Day, and Disney is also handling offshore before Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania gets going, so there could be some jockeying ahead as we noted on Thursday.”

 

Disney Analyst

Well-Known Member
“Earlier this week, James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water became the No. 5 highest-grossing movie ever worldwide, and, as expected, has now surfed to the No. 4 position on the all-time chart. In so doing, it leaves Star Wars: The Force Awakens in its wake with nearly $2.075B globally.

Through Friday, the worldwide gross on the 20th Century Studios/Disney/Lightstorm epic Avatar sequel is $2,074.8M, overtaking Force Awakens’ $2.071B. This means that Cameron has three of the top four movies ever globally alongside the original Avatar at No. 1 and Titanicat No. 3. Avatar: The Way of Water will top Titanic in the coming week or so on a global basis. However, Paramount is doing a Titanic domestic rerelease in time for Valentine’s Day, and Disney is also handling offshore before Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania gets going, so there could be some jockeying ahead as we noted on Thursday.”


So might hit top 3, but then have Titanic surpass it again.

Regardless, a total hit. Just like the first. Cameron has 3 of the top 4, that’s insane.
 

LittleBuford

Well-Known Member
I surprised myself by going to see this today with my partner (our first time back at the cinema since 2020). We liked it! Unlike some of you, we did feel the length during the set-up, which dragged on a bit in parts, but once the action kicked in during the second half, it was very gripping. I’m still a little surprised it’s done quite as well as it has, however.
 

Ghost93

Well-Known Member
I surprised myself by going to see this today with my partner (our first time back at the cinema since 2020). We liked it! Unlike some of you, we did feel the length during the set-up, which dragged on a bit in parts, but once the action kicked in during the second half, it was very gripping. I’m still a little surprised it’s done quite as well as it has, however.
I felt the set-up of the first hour — even though it was the least interesting part of the movie for me — felt rushed because they threw in so many character introductions and shocking developments (Quaritch is alive! Spider is his kid! They have an adopted daughter...who was immaculately conceived!!)

As for why it's doing well, I think it's because it's one of the only movies out right now — other than Puss and Boots — that is pure escapism. I have a lot of real-world crap to worry about. It's nice to be able to distract myself for three hours and immerse myself in another world. Sure the movie can be corny with the talking whales and cartoonish characterizations. ZBut it's a refreshing break from the heavy themes of movies like The Whale, Women Talking, She Said, Tar, etc.
 

LittleBuford

Well-Known Member
I felt the set-up of the first hour — even though it was the least interesting part of the movie for me — felt rushed because they threw in so many character introductions and shocking developments (Quaritch is alive! Spider is his kid! They have an adopted daughter...who was immaculately conceived!!)

As for why it's doing well, I think it's because it's one of the only movies out right now — other than Puss and Boots — that is pure escapism. I have a lot of real-world crap to worry about. It's nice to be able to distract myself for three hours and immerse myself in another world. Sure the movie can be corny with the talking whales and cartoonish characterizations. ZBut it's a refreshing break from the heavy themes of movies like The Whale, Women Talking, She Said, Tar, etc.
I think you're right, especially after the couple of years we've all had. Seeing it on the big screen certainly helped the sense of escape!

They have an adopted daughter...who was immaculately conceived!!
Please don't hate me for being pedantic, but I love sharing this information, which surprised me quite a bit when I first heard it: the Immaculate Conception doesn't refer to the virgin birth. It is a specifically Catholic belief about the Virgin Mary herself, who is held to have been conceived without the stain of Original Sin (i.e., immaculately).

Getting back to Avatar, I'm guessing Sigourney Junior's conception will be explained in future installments. She was one of the characters I most liked!
 

Wendy Pleakley

Well-Known Member
I surprised myself by going to see this today with my partner (our first time back at the cinema since 2020). We liked it! Unlike some of you, we did feel the length during the set-up, which dragged on a bit in parts, but once the action kicked in during the second half, it was very gripping. I’m still a little surprised it’s done quite as well as it has, however.

Which version did you see? 3D? High Frame Rate?

The movie almost never dragged for me, despite having a simple story. Maybe the parts where teenagers were being annoying teenagers.

I was surprised by many of the initial reactions saying this movie was leagues better than the first in terms of story and action. I'll have to see it again to cement an opinion, but I feel the big air battle finale in the first was more entertaining than anything in the sequel.
 

LittleBuford

Well-Known Member
Which version did you see? 3D? High Frame Rate?
Regular old 3D in a historical local cinema. I realise that something more high-tech may have wowed me more, but I don’t think it would have helped much with the issue of pacing. As I said, the last act was great for me; it’s just the lead-up that felt a bit too ponderous.
 

Wendy Pleakley

Well-Known Member
Thanks to a local half price ticket offer, I saw this again. This time in regular digital 3D with no high frame rate.

I preferred this. My viewing partner complained the HFR gave him a headache the first time.

At first I thought it was HFR because those scenes still look a little crisper than other scenes, but it wasn't. You still get differences between shots but it wasn't jarring like HFR was.

Cameron movies are the only ones I will see in 3D. The difference between the feature, and the 3D previews (Ant-Man and Guardians) was night and day.

I will say on second viewing I really felt the simplicity of the story, in that I felt a bit bored at times waiting for the exciting parts.

The major action set piece impressed me a bit more this time. The first time I think I was still focused on the HFR and trying to take it all in, but on second viewing I think it holds up quite well compared to the first movie's big finale.

The only downside is the big finale of the movie, for me, took place about 40 minutes before it ended. Everything after just didn't have the same scope so I didn't love the pacing of it from that perspective. I think they could have intermixed the big action with the smaller character focused bits. Like Return of the Jedi for example, where the Luke/Vader showdown takes place alongside the big space battle.

I enjoyed it a second time. I'm pretty sure I'll only see Avatar 3 once in the theater, given I now know which format is my preferred one.
 

BrianLo

Well-Known Member
Avatar: WoW has gotten shockingly close to the originals run currently at 2.116 to 2.74 billion (I'm removing Avatar re-releases for better parity).

I highly doubt the expectation was ever that it would get remotely close to the original. It obviously won't overtake it, but some Disney film Execs pipe dream wish came true.

I'm really most impressed that it has overtaken Force Awakens. That just seemed so unrealistic when there was so much expectation and build up for the former. But Avatar, for a franchise, is clearly the bigger International play.
 

Screamface

Well-Known Member
I'm really most impressed that it has overtaken Force Awakens. That just seemed so unrealistic when there was so much expectation and build up for the former. But Avatar, for a franchise, is clearly the bigger International play.

It just shows you how much they stuffed up Star Wars. TFA didn't deserve what it made. None of the sequels did. It was just the market that was there for Star Wars. They squandered it.

Avatar had some market share, but it didn't squander it.
 

BrianLo

Well-Known Member
Another interesting thing on WoW, of course the box office is inevitably 'converted' to USD, but the original movie released during the recession when the dollar was quite poor; versus currently the USD is quite strong against the Euro, Pound, etc.

Avatar: WoW has actually outperformed the original, in local currency, in many markets. You don't see this though, because we naturally only get the post conversion USD total. I mean, that's what matters to the studio, but it undersells how strongly the movie held amongst International audiences.

For example, in France, Avatar (2009) made ~121 million Euro and Avatar: WoW has already made ~125 Euro, but the box office tallies respectively are counted as 174 USD in 2009 and 138 USD for WoW today.


Of course, we can get in the weeds and say if we're going so far as to account for the big spread in exchange rates between 2009 and now, we also really should address for inflation as well. Really those two factors kind of cancel each other out at the end of the day, which is somewhat 'unique'.


It's also a good point to consider for the third movie. If we see more of a mean reversion of currency exchange in the next two years, international potential reported in USD could put that movie in an advantageous position.
 

Disney Irish

Premium Member
Another interesting thing on WoW, of course the box office is inevitably 'converted' to USD, but the original movie released during the recession when the dollar was quite poor; versus currently the USD is quite strong against the Euro, Pound, etc.

Avatar: WoW has actually outperformed the original, in local currency, in many markets. You don't see this though, because we naturally only get the post conversion USD total. I mean, that's what matters to the studio, but it undersells how strongly the movie held amongst International audiences.

For example, in France, Avatar (2009) made ~121 million Euro and Avatar: WoW has already made ~125 Euro, but the box office tallies respectively are counted as 174 USD in 2009 and 138 USD for WoW today.


Of course, we can get in the weeds and say if we're going so far as to account for the big spread in exchange rates between 2009 and now, we also really should address for inflation as well. Really those two factors kind of cancel each other out at the end of the day, which is somewhat 'unique'.


It's also a good point to consider for the third movie. If we see more of a mean reversion of currency exchange in the next two years, international potential reported in USD could put that movie in an advantageous position.
Yeah but remember that Avatar is irrelevant and no kids are showing up in blue Avatar costumes for Halloween. Doesn't matter how much money the movie makes, its all about the Halloween costume metric, zero knocks at the door means its an instant bomb.
 

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