'Avatar' Reclaims Box Office Record from Marvel's 'Avengers: Endgame' After China Re-Release (yahoo.com) 90
ComicBook.com reports:
Back in 2019, Avengers: Endgame hit theatres and after a couple of months, it ended up knocking Avatar out of the highest-grossing film spot. The James Cameron movie was number one for an entire decade before the Marvel film came along, but thanks to a recent re-release in China, Avatar is back on top...
When the news broke yesterday, many people took to social media to point out that the "real" winner was actually Zoe Saldana, who plays Gamora in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Neytiri in Avatar. No matter which movie ultimately wins the box office wars, Saldana can't lose... Saldana is expected to return for both Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and Avatar 2.
Deadline reports the directors of Marvel's Avengers: Endgame, Joe and Anthony Russo, "have graciously saluted James Cameron's film Avatar for edging past them in the all-time worldwide box office totals," by tweeting a custom piece of artwork merging the Avatar and Avengers logos. James Cameron himself shared the tweet he'd received from Marvel Studios congratulating "ALL of Na'vi Nation for reclaiming the box office crown" (which also included a memorable line from Avengers: Endgame).
Deadline says it's part of a long-standing Hollywood tradition: A practice of taking out ads to pat each other on the back began in 1977 when Steven Spielberg congratulated buddy George Lucas after Star Wars overtook Jaws at the domestic box office. It carried on from there including when Lucas later gave a shout-out to Cameron as Titanic unseated Star Wars in 1998.
In 2015, Disney/Marvel and The Avengers paid tribute to Universal's Jurassic World and its record-smashing opening weekend. Later that year, Uni returned the hat tip as Disney/Lucasfilm's The Force Awakens rode past the dinosaurs, moving to social media for the first time. Then in 2019, Cameron saluted Endgame for overtaking Titanic and in July that year Cameron again said bravo when Endgame crossed Avatar.
When the news broke yesterday, many people took to social media to point out that the "real" winner was actually Zoe Saldana, who plays Gamora in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Neytiri in Avatar. No matter which movie ultimately wins the box office wars, Saldana can't lose... Saldana is expected to return for both Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and Avatar 2.
Deadline reports the directors of Marvel's Avengers: Endgame, Joe and Anthony Russo, "have graciously saluted James Cameron's film Avatar for edging past them in the all-time worldwide box office totals," by tweeting a custom piece of artwork merging the Avatar and Avengers logos. James Cameron himself shared the tweet he'd received from Marvel Studios congratulating "ALL of Na'vi Nation for reclaiming the box office crown" (which also included a memorable line from Avengers: Endgame).
Deadline says it's part of a long-standing Hollywood tradition: A practice of taking out ads to pat each other on the back began in 1977 when Steven Spielberg congratulated buddy George Lucas after Star Wars overtook Jaws at the domestic box office. It carried on from there including when Lucas later gave a shout-out to Cameron as Titanic unseated Star Wars in 1998.
In 2015, Disney/Marvel and The Avengers paid tribute to Universal's Jurassic World and its record-smashing opening weekend. Later that year, Uni returned the hat tip as Disney/Lucasfilm's The Force Awakens rode past the dinosaurs, moving to social media for the first time. Then in 2019, Cameron saluted Endgame for overtaking Titanic and in July that year Cameron again said bravo when Endgame crossed Avatar.
I think both are over-rated (Score:2, Interesting)
Although I thought Endgame was impressive from a story perspective, bringing so many story lines and characters together in a final climax, I was not really that excited by the movie itself, not to where I would care about seeing it again.
However that for me still is way better than Avatar, a movie I half-wish I hadn't even bothered to see - I really disliked the story. The world was kind of interesting so that kind of saved it, but I find the thought of more Avatar movies upcoming to be of really little i
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For your reply, it seems you saw the movie in 2D and thought the Navi were actors in a blue-painted suit.
Doesn't matter how many D's you add.. (Score:2)
For your reply, it seems you saw the movie in 2D and thought the Navi were actors in a blue-painted suit.
It is true I never saw Avatar in 3D and I know that was a big aspect of its popularity at the time... but no amount of 3D or realism would help the story, which was 1D and frankly 1-note.
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You must see it in 3D, seriously.
I saw it in 2D & 3D and there's simply no colour.
In 3D, there were two systems, both of which I saw too: the classic blue/red glasses and the "real-color" grey glasses.
The latter is A-mazing. The classic one made me dizzy and the 2D is just... meh.
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You must see it in 3D, seriously.
It's a pretty heavy burden to endure that story again, but I probably will as I assume it will come out in 3D ahead of the sequel.
The Flight of Passage experience at DisneyWorld is pretty impressive looking as well (although for me incredibly nausea inducing), though I think the movie would probably be better still.
On a side note Flight of Passage is a great representation of the Avatar world as it presents a visually cool concept with almost a negative amount of thought abo
Re:Doesn't matter how many D's you add.. (Score:4, Insightful)
The latter is A-mazing...
I saw it in 3D and it was still shit. I don't go to the movies to see 3 hours of flashy colours and sound. I want a story and the Avatar story sucked. It was high school level noble savage mythology that is trotted out all too much from Hollywood
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So, you're in agreement with those of BW silent cinema who went to cinema when color movies were happening and said: "I don't go to the movies to see 3 hours of flashy colours and sound".
OK, I think the movie is great because it created the basis for cinema improvement.
Just like Don Quixote is the first "modern" novel, though it bores me to DEATH (and yes, I'm Spaniard and I own a +6,000 physical books, my library).
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So, you're in agreement with those of BW silent cinema who went to cinema when color movies were happening and said: "I don't go to the movies to see 3 hours of flashy colours and sound".
Nope, never said that.
OK, I think the movie is great because it created the basis for cinema improvement.
Yeah I don't go for that either. Terminator 2 was an improvement in cinema technology, but it was also entertaining.
Did you see the Final Fantasy movie? It was a generational leap in CGI, but the story also sucked. Entertainment should be entertaining (IMO)
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Yes I saw Final Fantasy, and I liked it (I'm a FF fan).
Did you see "2001: A Space Odyssey", is just the same example to me as Avatar: it's a terrible movie but changed cinema.
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It's a much better movie if you turn off the sound and just watch with a good set of headphones playing some appropriate classical music. You can read your own statements into the plot while enjoying what was at the time flatly amazing visual effects.
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I never said I love it. When talking about the movie, I always referred to the 3D...
Avatar is beautiful (Score:2)
Avatar is beautiful. That's its appeal, and that's the sum of its appeal.
As for plot, it's a very sad story. It's sad because two hours after the end of the movie, they firebomb the mining site from orbit, incinerating everybody you've seen on the surface, and then with the riff-raff burned away they mine the unobtanium undisturbed.
Soldiers with antimatter-propelled spacecraft only lost to people with bows and arrows riding flying horses if they aren't actually trying.
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It's sad because two hours after the end of the movie, they firebomb the mining site from orbit, incinerating everybody you've seen on the surface,
That is a great point, I assume Avatar 2 is about historians digging through ashes and debris that litter the lifeless planet, telling the story of the last hours of the citizens of Avatar as presented in flashbacks with lots of gratuitous tail-sex.
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The plot has been done so many times, it's even used in one part of the Bible. Man works for the exploiters, meets the natives, turns to their site, becomes a much better native than any of the actual natives are, fights off the exploiters. See also:The Last Samurai, Dances with Wolves, Pocahontas, Fern Gully.
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Dances with Smurfs.
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"This is the biggest deposit of Unobtainium for 800 clicks."
"Oh? Well let's just go and get the larger deposit 800 clicks away, then. We are in orbit, you know."
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In fact, I remember my reactions to the 3D aspect, if only because I've only seen a couple other 3D films in the years since. I initially went from "am I wearing these glasses right?" to "guess I've got this right, okay it's a little impressive how stuff pops off the screen". Then I broke the immersion
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Although I thought Endgame was impressive from a story perspective, bringing so many story lines and characters together in a final climax, I was not really that excited by the movie itself, not to where I would care about seeing it again.
However that for me still is way better than Avatar, a movie I half-wish I hadn't even bothered to see - I really disliked the story. The world was kind of interesting so that kind of saved it, but I find the thought of more Avatar movies upcoming to be of really little interest, whereas there are still a number of upcoming Marvel things that look fun.
I kind of agree with you.
Endgame was a spectacle in its own way but only in the sense of OMG WOW Comic Books Action Over-the-Top Eleventy11!!!
But Avatar was worse. I don't regret seeing it. It's the first and only movie I'm aware of that justified 3D movie tech. And that was the only reason I saw it. It was visually stunning. But I would have got as much out of it muting the dialogue and just admiring the pretty stuff. The acting, plot, and dialogue were absolutely vanilla.
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> Avatar, a movie I half-wish I hadn't even bothered to see - I really disliked the story.
That's because the story is a remake of Dances with Wolves in Space.
For the most part it is dumb mindless action with hints of deeper philosophy sprinkled in.
Re:I think both are over-rated (Score:5, Insightful)
For the most part it is dumb mindless action with hints of deeper philosophy sprinkled in.
It's not even deep philosophy, it's cliched, over simplistic, nature good/human bad high school moron level philosophy.
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It works BECAUSE it was simple. It resonates with people because a lot of the planet has seen it's share of dumbass invaders taking their stuff and not worried about how it impacts the locals. Blood diamonds. Copper in Chile. Oil. You name it. What people might have sold -- they get killed because someone doesn't want to negotiate and take the risk of having to pay.
There are people who really don't have a clue -- and it's the people who don't understand the plot of the movie is the most plausible tragedy th
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The heartless and pointlessness of the exploitation is not preposterous -- it's the point of the movie. It doesn't seem like it painted the picture simple enough because so many people can't get the allegory..
Oh we got it, it's just that the noble savage concept is dumb, and easily disprovable, yet still gets done to death and each time the morons think it's a moral achievement of some sort. But sure, it was really poignant and it resonated with you. Good to know...
The philosophy here is ignorant savages who are greedy will ruin your planet. You know what is killing the planet? Stupid greedy people. And it's taking them a long ass time to figure out the message.
As I said, dumb. We live in the most peaceful and prosperous time in human history thanks to capitalism and the personal freedoms driven by it. We know that stupid people think capitalism is evil, and rich people are evil, and the police are evil, and
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It's called entertainment, not philosophy class. Sometimes you want to see a movie that makes you think. Sometimes you want to see a movie that looks great. Sometimes you want an extravaganza that does everything. Sometimes... well last night I watched "The Predator", the new one. I was specifically in the mood for something completely mindless, braindead, with sufficient gore, and funny lines, but funny in the way you laugh at bad screenplay not actual comedy.
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But Avatar wasn't fun, it was trying to be philosophical but at the level of a high school philosopher. ie Noble savage good, white colonialist bad etc. We've heard that message a million times out of Hollywood and it doesn't get any less preposterous with time.
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Oh I agree. It's not fun. The onlything it had going for it was that it was pretty. It was oh so pretty. The kind of movie you bust out to test your new 4K UHD TV and that's about it.
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Uh, did you the completely miss the parts where deeper philosophy is hinted at? Specifically:
* Science is able to transfer consciousness to another body (The parallels to an actual OBE shouldn't be ignored),
* The ability for consciousness to link up when Na'vi join their neuro-conductive antennae with each other, their direhorse, their mountain banshee, etc.,
* The Tree of Souls granting access to the deceased,
* The Tree of Souls being able to transfer consciousness from one body to another (It failed with G
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Uh, did you the completely miss the parts where deeper philosophy is hinted at?
Nope. I saw the attempts to try and be 'philosophical' which came off looking cartoonish and poorly thought out.
Specifically:
* Science is able to transfer consciousness to another body
Already done
The ability for consciousness to link up when Na'vi join their neuro-conductive antennae with each other, their direhorse, their mountain banshee, etc.,
Already done
The Tree of Souls granting access to the deceased
Already done
The Tree of Souls being able to transfer consciousness from one body to another
Ok, transfer consciousness, connecting consciousness, contacting the dead are all done and cliched. Philosophy is when you present some sort of wisdom about existence etc, not just portray a bunch of cliched events already portrayed in movies many times before.
How all living things are connected through Eywa. (Introduction to Pantheism)
So just the Gaia idea then?
It questions the cost of unbridled greed
It creates a cartoon version of 'evil capitalism' seen in every kid's movie
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Overrated by whom?
I was thinking mostly fan sentiment; although it is true you don't see a lot of that around these days for a while it seemed like there was quite a heavy cosplay scene around Avatar.
As for Endgame, it sure seemed like a lot of people who really loved the MCU stuff, really liked Endgame.
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Come to think of it I paid more at the box office for Avatar than perhaps any other film myself, because I wanted to see it in 3d. For me it was cool and worth it, even though it's not on my "top films" list.
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Overrated by whom?
Blatantly by the public.
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Although I thought Endgame was impressive from a story perspective,
"When the universe was created six magic beans fell out"? That's LOL, not impressive.
And then we have a villain who can't even fly and has no ranged attacks (initially) but is supposedly able to defeat basically the whole universe of superheroes even though it's clear that Dr Strange's ability to snip his head off (as actually shown during a fight scene) would have ended the argument in three seconds flat. Magneto could probably have defeated him.
Story-wise the whole Infinity Gauntlet thing was as bad in th
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Although I thought Endgame was impressive from a story perspective, bringing so many story lines and characters together in a final climax
We need to be super ultra careful not to disturb the time line! Oh but the villain will come forward in time skipping when he caused the main problem and we'll kill him then.
Meaningless metric if not inflation-adjusted (Score:5, Informative)
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And those are meaningless if you don't include merchandising. Merchandising is typically far more profitable for a movie than the actual movie is.
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I think the point of the statistic is to figure out which movie is most popular. It would thus make more sense to add in DVD/VHS sales.
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DVD and VHS sales? What is this, 2006?
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Merchandising! Merchandising! Where the real money from the movie is made!
Spaceballs: the T-shirt!
Spaceballs: the coloring book!
Spaceballs: the lunchbox!
Spaceballs: the breakfast cereal!
Spaceballs: the flamethrower! - The kids love this one.
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If they actually cared about the most popular films, they'd go by ticket sales numbers rather than gross income. But they don't. They just want to be able to market every new blockbuster as the most "popular" (read: hyped) film ever.
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Which is really easy to do, thanks to inflation and the rapidly expanding market in still-developing countries. Every year can set a new record!
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Wouldn't "most popular" include home video and streaming sales though? I mean a view is a view, regardless of if it is in a cinema.
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This is the inflation-adjusted WORLDWIDE ranking https://www.boxofficemojo.com/... [boxofficemojo.com]
You are using the USA-only revenue. So yes, Avatar and Endgame are still the #1 and #2 movies, when adjusted for inflation, looking at global income.
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This is the inflation-adjusted ranking https://www.boxofficemojo.com/... [boxofficemojo.com] These films don't even make the top 10
So you're saying when you only look at only the US, a movie from 1939 has earned more money over its lifetime, adjusted for inflation, than one that was released 70 years later?
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These films don't even make the top 10
I'll reserve judgement for a time when Avatar has been around for 80 years, and has sold countless remasters, re-releases, and god knows what else like everything else in that list.
If you're going to adjust for inflation at least pick numbers with a common release life.
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That site isn't inflation adjusted revenue, it's the number of tickets sold adjusted for inflation of ticket prices.
So while it's interesting it's not all that useful. For example the top spot is held by Gone with the Wind, which was released in 1939. Back then there were many more cinemas and many fewer movies. The per-year revenue compared to Force Awakens, released in 2015, is tiny. There is no Gone with the Wind franchise either, no theme parks or toy lines.
Also these days a lot of revenue is from home
Coming Soon to Theaters Near You... (Score:3)
This sounds like a call for Marvel to re-release Avengers Endgame into the theaters again to retake their spot.
Followed by all movie studios realizing that they don't have to copy their movies anymore trying to replicate the formula, they can just re-re-re-release movies and cycle them through theaters again...and again...and again...
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This sounds like a call for Marvel to re-release Avengers Endgame into the theaters again to retake their spot.
Or some sort of mashup like, "Avengers Ender's Game"
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Coincidentally, it's airing on TBS right this second as I type this... Tony just snapped..
Engame will be re-released (Score:2)
Joe and Anthony Russo have confirmed that Avengers Endgame will be re-released with a special new end credits scene of teenage Groot saying "I am Groot" in a mean tone and flipping off a Navi.
overrated (Score:2)
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I liked the magic neclkaces that always managed to hide the females' nipples, no matter what they were doing.
I always thought the underlying plot was stupid (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: I always thought the underlying plot was stupi (Score:2)
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Why can't they work out some sort of deal where they can extract the unobtainium from underneath the magic tree without harming it?
It's been a while since I saw the movie but from what I remember they did not even tell the Navi about the unobtainium. That was the whole reason Jake was there. He had one job and he failed [youtube.com]. Maybe it was in a deleted scene that Jake told the Navi.
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Why can't they work out some sort of...
Because the plot was stupid? I see many people avoid this fact with crazy explanations, but as with most blockbustery type movies, the story is stupid and aimed at morons who pay money for flashy lights and big sound effect.
I think Avatar was the last movie I went to before I realised that I'm too old for movie maker target demographics .
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When art imitates life too much -- it winds up seeming preposterous. Imagine trading with people when you can bomb them and just take it? The story is stupid because we do this stuff all the time on this planet.
Anyone want to jump in and mention all the resource wars we've had?
Nobody gets that the entire planet is a delicate living ecosystem -- it would be pretty much brain surgery rather than a normal ore extraction to remove it. Getting the ore means killing the sacred Tree -- and likely the "afterlife" f
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When art imitates life too much -- it winds up seeming preposterous.
And then you proved my point....
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You could easily make the Na'vi into the evil side, yes.
"I need to dig up your home or billions of people will die."
"No. Home is sacred."
"But you can move to a new home. We can't."
"No. Home is sacred. We will not move."
"People are dying! What do you want? Money? Technology? Medicine? We can double your lifespan. We can cure your diseases. We can make it so none of your people ever need be hungry again. We can give you the secrets of the universe."
"No. We do not want any of these things. We are happy as we a
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The situation is set based on the premise that they have to kill the tree to get to the Unobtainium. The movie is about exploitation. It's another people who are sitting on top of resources someone else wants.
Sure, they could work it out -- but why don't we do that in all the nations where we went to war to get the Oil or other resources?
What's a stretch is thinking that that point would be the hard thing to fathom in the story. It's almost like you didn't hear of the war to liberate oil in Iraq.
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Well that's just because you're some paid shill for big mining ;-)
No seriously you claim the premise is stupid but you propose something that the human race has shown to be incapable of and highly destructive at, even when talking about our own species to say nothing of some native tribe.
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The tree had religious significance and presumably moving it or replacing it or mining under it would not have been acceptable.
As you say a lot of strife could have been avoided by simply talking to the Navi, or if they had just mined somewhere else. It was never said that below the tree was the only source of unobtainium, it was available elsewhere too.
So, will Avatar 2 ever arrive? (Score:2)
So, perhaps the mild hype might push the forever-in-production (12 years and counting!) sequel ahead? just a bit...
why? (Score:2)
The story is mediocre. The plot and world view is simplistic and naive. The physics is all wrong. There is very little that should appeal to a member of a website that proclaims news for nerds. Nerds are smart, Avatar isn't. So why care about the sequ
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Re: why? (Score:3)
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It's another unfortunate example of the "white saviour" trope. The Navi are clearly based on indigenous cultures from Earth, and like in Dances with Wolves and Last Samurai it's up to the white guy to save them from the other white guys.
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So, perhaps the mild hype might push the forever-in-production (12 years and counting!) sequel ahead? just a bit...
Supposedly December 2022. And there is going to be 3 sequels released over time - but all of them were shot at the same time.
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So, perhaps the mild hype might push the forever-in-production (12 years and counting!) sequel ahead? just a bit...
Supposedly December 2022. And there is going to be 3 sequels released over time - but all of them were shot at the same time.
So they actually filmed these? It's crazy when you think about how terrible the first movie was, and how long it's been since anyone has cared about.
Well, anyone but the Chinese I guess.
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So, perhaps the mild hype might push the forever-in-production (12 years and counting!) sequel ahead? just a bit...
I don't think any studios are rushing films through production right now.
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So, perhaps the mild hype might push the forever-in-production (12 years and counting!) sequel ahead? just a bit...
I don't think any studios are rushing films through production right now.
Given that these are sequels to such a stupid movie, maybe they should just release them straight to VR or something like that.
Why is Avatar popular again? (Score:2)
All it does is recycle cliché plots and characters from late eighties/early nineties anvilicious green aesop cartoons.
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Totals (Score:2)
None of the linked articles give the actual totals. They are:
Avatar $2.802 billion
Avengers: Endgame: $2.797 billion
All the back-slapping is weird (Score:2)
All this congratulatory back-and-forth seems like a passive-aggressive game of one-upsmanship. It's being played really politely, but both sides are increasing the stakes each time the mantle changes hands. Let's see if it can stay a "friendly" rivalry under such conditions.
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It's not a rivalry: It's a marketing ploy. It's working. I'll promote your movies if you promote mine, and we both enjoy better sales.
China has theaters open? (Score:2)
It's easy to sell better something someplace where you're allowed to buy it. Not many theater ticket sales in the US yet.
Don't really consider this the same release (Score:1)
I don't really care either way but I don't consider a release over a decade later to be part of the same box office.
I loved infinity war-- saw it 6 times in theaters.
After all the captain marvel bullcrap- every time she came on screen it broke my suspension of disbelief. I loved lots of stuff in Endgame a great deal. But it was they tell you that your great salad that has a crushed bug in it. So I only saw it once. It wasn't a boycott. I just wasn't interested. Being very selective about marvel going
The “real” winner? (Score:2)
Forget Zoe Saldana, the real winner is Disney, who now owns both franchises.
They love it (Score:2)
The Chinese Communist Party loves Avatar because it shows Western values as being corrupt and evil, and this is a story of one man rebelling against such a system. The Chinese seem to get the moral of the story Hollywood puts out constantly, and so do Americans, considering all the rioting and self hate we've seen in the past year. Are we really that horrible compared to the rest of the world? Is there nothing left to be proud of?
Cage fight with themselves (Score:1)
Oh no, Disney better put Disney on notice that they are going to fight for the top spot. After all Disney canâ(TM)t let Disney win. If Disney let Disney win rather than Disney, what would everyone think of Disney after such a humiliating defeat from Disney.