Posts Tagged ‘james camerons avatar’

Avatar first film to Pass $700 Million in North America

March 2nd, 2010

Avatar grossed $14 million at the North American box office this past weekend. Avatar has now passed the $700 million mark at the domestic box office. That’s a first, though Avatar still trails a number of other movies in terms of ticket sales. Avatar’s total gross currently stands at $706.9 million. That’s $106 million more than the old record holder – Titanic – who stopped at $601 million domestic.

Overseas, Avatar remained at the top of the box-office charts for the 11th consecutive weekend, taking in $36.1 million at 6,535 screens in 70 territories. Its worldwide total is a staggering $2.550 billion. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Avatar’s top market this weekend was Japan ($4 million), though France remains the top market overall, with a total of $169 million to date.

Next weekend, Avatar will likely suffer a significant box-office drop in North America and in most other top film markets, as Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland will be replacing it at numerous IMAX and 3D theaters. However, Fox is reportedly planning to rerelease the film later this year.

Avatar tops Titanic domestic Box Office record

February 4th, 2010

So the day has finally arrived, Avatar passed Titanic at the North American Box Office all time list. This is a feat that was thought almost impossible just a few months ago, but Avatar ignores all the rules that normally apply at the Box Office.

Avatar still tops the daily and weekly Box Office as well, so the final tally for Avatar is still to be seen. Avatar just got 9 Oscar nominations, that should give Avatar another boost. If Avatar wins some Oscars (which it will), that will be another boost. Just the fact that it passed Titanic will be a boost in itself.

Conclusion -  Avatar still have a lot of earning power left. $700+ million at the North American Box Office wouldn’t surprise me.

1 Avatar $601,142,000 2009
2 Titanic $600,788,188 1997
3 The Dark Knight $533,345,358 2008
4 Star Wars $460,998,007 1977^
5 Shrek 2 $441,226,247 2004
6 E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial $435,110,554 1982^
7 Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace $431,088,301 1999
8 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest $423,315,812 2006
9 Spider-Man $403,706,375 2002
10 Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen $402,111,870 2009

Avatar gets 9 Oscar nominations

February 2nd, 2010

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Avatar got 9 Oscar nominations just as I predicted (21% of the readers predicted 9-10 nominations according to the poll in my previous post, congrats to you). With 9 nominations Avatar leads the pack together with “The Hurt Locker” that also got 9 nominations.

It’s gonna be an exiting evening March 7th when the winners as announced, only 33 days away, Avatar FTW :-)

Here’s the complete list of all the categories and nominees.

PICTURE:
Avatar
The Blind Side
District 9
An Education
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire
A Serious Man
Up
Up in the Air

DIRECTOR:
James Cameron – Avatar
Kathryn Bigelow – The Hurt Locker
Quentin Tarantino – Inglourious Basterds
Lee Daniels – Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire
Jason Reitman – Up in the Air

ACTOR:
Jeff Bridges – Crazy Heart
George Clooney – Up in the Air
Colin Firth – A Single Man
Morgan Freeman – Invictus
Jeremy Renner – The Hurt Locker

ACTRESS:
Sandra Bullock – The Blind Side
Helen Mirren – The Last Station
Carey Mulligan – An Education
Gabourey Sidibe – Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire
Meryl Streep – Julie & Julia

SUPPORTING ACTOR:
Matt Damon – Invictus
Woody Harrelson – The Messenger
Christopher Plummer – The Last Station
Stanley Tucci – The Lovely Bones
Christoph Waltz – Inglourious Basterds

SUPPORTING ACTRESS:
Penélope Cruz – Nine
Vera Farmiga – Up in the Air
Maggie Gyllenhaal – Crazy Heart
Anna Kendrick – Up in the Air
Mo’Nique – Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY:
Mark Boal – The Hurt Locker
Quentin Tarantino – Inglourious Basterds
Alessandro Camon & Oren Moverman – The Messenger
Joel Coen & Ethan Coen – A Serious Man
Bob Peterson, Pete Docter – Up

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY:
Neill Blomkamp & Terri Tatchell – District 9
Nick Hornby – An Education
Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Tony Roche – In the Loop
Geoffrey Fletcher – Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire
Jason Reitman & Sheldon Turner – Up in the Air

ANIMATED FEATURE:
Coraline
Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Princess and the Frog
The Secret of Kells
Up

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM:
Ajami (Israel)
El Secreto de Sus Ojos (Argentina)
The Milk of Sorrow (Peru)
Un Prophète (France)
The White Ribbon (Germany)

ART DIRECTION:
Avatar
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Nine
Sherlock Holmes
The Young Victoria

CINEMATOGRAPHY:
Mauro Fiore – Avatar
Bruno Delbonnel – Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Barry Ackroyd – The Hurt Locker
Robert Richardson – Inglourious Basterds
Christian Berger – The White Ribbon

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE:
Burma VJ
The Cove
Food, Inc.
The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers
Which Way Home

DOCUMENTARY SHORT:
China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province
The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner
The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant
Music by Prudence
Rabbit à la Berlin

ANIMATED SHORT:
French Roast
Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty
The Lady and the Reaper (La Dama y la Muerte)
Logorama
A Matter of Loaf and Death

LIVE-ACTION SHORT:
The Door
Instead of Abracadabra
Kavi
Miracle Fish
The New Tenants

VISUAL EFFECTS:
Avatar
District 9
Star Trek

COSTUME DESIGN:
Bright Star
Coco before Chanel
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Nine
The Young Victoria

MAKEUP:
Il Divo
Star Trek
The Young Victoria

FILM EDITING:
Avatar
District 9
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire

SOUND MIXING:
Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Star Trek
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

SOUND EDITING:
Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Star Trek
Up

ORIGINAL SCORE:
James Horner – Avatar
Alexandre Desplat – Fantastic Mr. Fox
Marco Beltrami & Buck Sanders – The Hurt Locker
Hans Zimmer – Sherlock Holmes
Michael Giacchino – Up

ORIGINAL SONG:
“Almost There” from The Princess and the Frog
“Down in New Orleans” from The Princess and the Frog
“Loin de Paname” from Paris 36
“Take It All” from Nine
“The Weary Kind” from Crazy Heart

Avatar at the Oscars

January 30th, 2010

oscar

The nominees for the 82nd Annual Academy Awards will be announced on February 2nd.

Personally I think Avatar will get 9 nominations, and will end up wining 4 or 5 categories.

How many nominees do you think Avatar will get?

How many Oscar nominations will Avatar get?


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Below is a list of all the categories, I’ve highlighted the categories that I think Avatar will be nominated in.

Best Actor in a Leading Role
Best Actor in a Supporting Role
Best Actress in a Leading Role
Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Best Animated Feature
Best Animated Short Film
Best Art Direction
Best Cinematography

Best Costume Design
Best Director
Best Documentary Feature
Best Documentary Short Subject
Best Film Editing
Best Foreign Language Film
Best Live Action Short Film
Best Makeup
Best Original Score
Best Original Song
Best Picture
Best Sound Editing
Best Sound Mixing
Best Visual Effects
Best Writing – Adapted Screenplay
Best Writing – Original Screenplay

DVD

January 27th, 2010

avatar_dvd

I’ve been getting a lot of questions about the upcoming release of the Avatar DVD and Blu-ray this past weeks.

Cameron has said that he anticipates the film to arrive on DVD and Blu-ray sometime June-August, but doesn’t expect a 3D version of the film to be released immediately.

He said this in December, before he knew what level of success Avatar would have, so maybe it’s more likely that we get the DVD and Blu-ray release somewhere around September-November since Avatar still performs strong at the Box Office.

Probably the initial Blu-ray release of Avatar won’t be in 3-D and then a subsequent release will be in 3-D. That’s my guess right now. So we will probably put out a disk, you know, in six or eight months, let’s call it six months, and then after that we will have a 3-D disc when there are enough sets available.

In regards to any special content, Cameron revealed that there are about 10 to 12 minutes of footage that may be included on the home video release either as deleted scenes or as part of an extended edition.  One scene in particular focuses on Worthington’s character Jake Sully in his Avatar form, hunting a Sturmbeest — which is no longer seen in the movie.

MTV: Is there a sequence or two that you can describe for me that maybe will make it — whether it’s a director’s cut or an expanded edition — on DVD?

Cameron: …It’s a creature you no longer see in the movie,” Cameron said. “[Sully] has to learn how to hunt through the air and do this incredibly brave thing, and then after the hunt they have this big festival and they dance and there’s a drunk scene with [Na'vi member] Tsu’tey, which is Laz Alonso’s character, which is actually pretty damn funny.

Source: Your entertainment now

Avatar tops Box Office for SIXTH consecutive weekend

January 25th, 2010

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Avatar tops Box Office for sixth consecutive weekend as it earned $36 million. Avatar is only the second film in history to reign the Box Office for this long, guess what other film has accomplished this – yep, that’s right – Titanic.

Up until now we have compared Avatar to Titanic’s performance, soon however, Avatar will cruise on new water. Avatar now stands at a total of $552.8 million in North America, only $49 million shy of Titanic’s total  gross. Avatar has now also passed The Dark Knight at the North American Box Office and only has Titanic in front of it.

International figures are lagging a bit in reporting Box Office figures, but you can soon expect reports that Avatar has taken over the number one spot on the World Wide Box Office gross list. And soon after that there will be reported that Avatar became the first movie in history to gross $2+ billion.

Stay tuned… (or subscribe to my RSS-feed or follow me on Twitter for coming updates)

Avatar tops Box Office for fifth straight weekend

January 17th, 2010

avatar2009aug0820a-tsr_720p.mov1698

Avatar steams ahead at the Box Office. For the fifth straight weekend Avatar tops the Box Office in North America with $41.3million and has now amassed a total of $492 million in North America alone. Avatar is the first film since 1999’s The Six Sense to top the Box Office for five straight weeks.

It looks more and more certain that Avatar eventually will beat Titanic’s record of $600.8 millions at the North American Box Office. The current no.2,  The Dark Knight, stands at $533.3 million and will probably be passed by Avatar next weekend.

1 Avatar Fox $41,300,000 $491,767,000
2 The Book of Eli WB $31,615,000 $31,615,000
3 The Lovely Bones P/DW $17,060,000 $17,527,000
4 Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel Fox $11,500,000 $192,592,000
5 Sherlock Holmes WB $9,825,000 $180,018,000

The worldwide gross for Avatar now now stands at $1.602.2 BILLION. Titanic will sink (pun intended) to second place, it’s just a matter of time now.

1 Titanic $1,842.9
2 Avatar $1,602.2
3 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King $1,119.1
4 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest $1,066.2
5 The Dark Knight $1,001.9
6 Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone $974.7

Discovery News Interview with Avatar director James Cameron

January 14th, 2010

This is a great interview with James Cameron where we learn what it took to make Avatar into what it is. We get to see a lot of behind the scenes footage and know some cool facts.

Have a look at the embedded video below.

Avatar tops Box Office for fourth consecutive weekend

January 11th, 2010

avatar2009aug0820a-tsr_720p.mov1603

Avatar will not stop. The past week Avatar added another $200 million to it’s already big coffin and is now standing at $1.34 billion wordwide.

Avatar made $50 million in the North America in it’s fourth weekend, a new record of course. The previous record holder – Titanic – made $28.7 million in it’s fourth weekend back in 1997.

Avatar is now also the most successful movie of 2009 in North America, Avatar now stands at $430 million in North America, beating Transformers 2 that made $402 million.

Titanic’s $1.8 billion worldwide record seems to be up for grabs! Only $500 million to go.

James Cameron’s “Avatar” continues to race up the box office charts, remaining No. 1 domestically for the fourth straight weekend with $48.5 $50 million and placing second among all-time top-grossing films worldwide.

The science-fiction saga from 20th Century Fox added $143 million overseas to raise its international haul to $906 million. With $429 $430 million domestically, “Avatar” has pulled in $1.34 billion worldwide, behind only Cameron’s “Titanic,” which took in $1.8 billion.

In just 24 days, “Avatar” shot past the $402.1 million domestic total of “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” to become the No. 1 release of 2009. Cameron’s tale of humans and aliens in conflict on a distant world now stands at No. 6 on the all-time domestic chart.

The film has just over $100 million to go to pass the No. 2 domestic hit, “The Dark Knight” at $533.3 million.

“I think we’ll get there very soon,” said Bert Livingston, 20th Century Fox distribution executive. “I believe anything is possible with this picture. Nothing would surprise me. There’s a still a long way to go, and it’s going to keep on playing and playing.”

Source: The Associated Press

Avatar moves up to #2 worldwide and breaks record in China

January 8th, 2010

avatar_neytiri

Avatar is now 2:nd on the worldwide Box Office list. James Cameron can now call himself King of the world AND universe.

1 Titanic $1,842.9 1997
2 Avatar $1,131.8 2009
3 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King $1,119.1 2003
4 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest $1,066.2 2006
5 The Dark Knight $1,001.9 2008

Avatar also broke records when opening in China this Monday.

BEIJING (Hollywood Reporter) – Despite record snowfall and bitter cold, “Avatar” burned up China’s box office, earning about $5 million Monday to set a record for a weekday opening here, Twentieth Century Fox said.

The 22nd century sci-fi movie could be on its way to confirming China as the 21st century’s second-biggest territory for Hollywood blockbusters outside North America.

Although nearly a foot of snow blanketed China’s capital on Sunday and James Cameron’s $1 billion global box office hit didn’t premiere here until midnight that night, moviegoers still lined up in near-zero temperatures for half-price 40 yuan tickets ($5.85) and sold out the show at the Sanlitun Megabox theater.

“The theater was packed with people coming in freezing, bundled up in hats and coats and scarves,” a Megabox ticket seller said on Monday afternoon.

A Monday 4 p.m. show at the Megabox sold out of full-price 80 yuan ($11.71) tickets largely because the heaviest snowfall since 1951 closed Beijing offices and schools, extending the winter weekend.

“Avatar” enjoyed a nationwide cross-media promotion in China, including Cameron’s December 23 appearance in Beijing.

The director is well-known to Chinese for “Titanic,” which grossed $52.7 million here in 1998, a record that was only broken last July, by “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.” The “Transformers” sequel earned 400 million yuan $59 million, making China its No. 2 territory outside North America. “2012″ eclipsed that mark last month, earning $67 million.

Weng Li, spokesman for state-run distributor China Film Group Corp, told news portal Sina.com on Monday that “Avatar” would “create a boxoffice record of 500 million yuan easily.” That’s a projected $73 million, of which Fox will be allowed by Chinese law to keep roughly 15%, or $11 million.

China’s boxoffice is still small compared with North America’s Government data showed revenue rose from 920 million yuan in 2003 to 4.3 billion yuan ($630 million) in 2008, when China had about 4,000 screens, a number expected to reach 6,000 by 2011. By comparison, in the U.S. in 2008, movies grossed $9.8 billion on roughly 40,000 screens.