Will the new Star Wars movie top Avatar at the box office?

[Chino]

How come when it comes to Avatar, many people say things like "why do you need 4 movies to explain a group of blue people?" and "Is there anything left to tell? Cameron just wants a cash grab, but when it comes to Star Wars, the world seems ready to accept as many stories as they could possibly come up with?

I'm actually really curious to see what he's got up his sleeve. Say what you want about the guy but he produces 'winners'....shoot, ALIENS is one of my favorite movies of all time. I can't imagine he's going to put this much effort into something and it not be gold.

The story can be taken literally everywhere. It's a long shot, but this is what I'd LOVE to see end up happening with Pandora: I want to find out that Pandora is kind of at the point where Earth was in the 1700s or so. They'd have advanced Na'vi (think colonial Americans) in some areas, and the Na'vi we saw in the first film are the equivalent of our tribes in the Amazon. It'd be awesome to see Na'vi civilizations that were relatively advanced who built and shaped their surroundings. It would be cool to see them somehow come help the forest dwelling Na'vi in the final showdown with humans.

Also, I'd love to see the years leading up to the first film. The survival guide talks about first contact and the original mining operations (goes into detail about why humans just don't mine the floating mountains) that eventually lead to the conflicts with the Na'vi.

[cramx3]

How come when it comes to Avatar, many people say things like "why do you need 4 movies to explain a group of blue people?" and "Is there anything left to tell? Cameron just wants a cash grab", but when it comes to Star Wars, the world seems ready to accept as many stories as they could possibly come up with?

I think it's because there is a long history of Star Wars movies/video games/books that explore the whole universe and the fans love this stuff.  Avatar just doesn't have that history.

Cameron is great though, I'd be interested to see what he does because I would imagine the next Avatar movies will have more of an original plot.

[Chino]

How come when it comes to Avatar, many people say things like "why do you need 4 movies to explain a group of blue people?" and "Is there anything left to tell? Cameron just wants a cash grab", but when it comes to Star Wars, the world seems ready to accept as many stories as they could possibly come up with?

I think it's because there is a long history of Star Wars movies/video games/books that explore the whole universe and the fans love this stuff.  Avatar just doesn't have that history.

Cameron is great though, I'd be interested to see what he does because I would imagine the next Avatar movies will have more of an original plot.

Avatar's universe is expanding. It's getting it's own theme park, there's the Cirque Du Soleil show, Toruk, that's touring all over the world, and Dark Horse has come on board and there will be an Avatar comic series (different story line and characters unrelated to the film). I can only hope that in the near future a game is developed for VR that allows me to really get into Pandora.

As for the plot, most definitely. I still argue that the first film did it's job perfectly. It proved the technology, introduced us to Pandora, and got us familiar with the Na'vi and their culture. All the introduction stuff is out of the way and now the official trilogy can hit the ground running with no time being wasted on what was covered in the first film.

[BlobVanDam]

You cannot seriously compare the scope of the Star Wars universe with Avatar. Whatever Avatar has, multiply it by literally 100. Literally. The literal definition of literally.

[cramx3]

Chino, have you seen that Cirque show?  I really like seeing those (seen around 5 of them), didn't even know there was an Avatar themed one.

[Chino]

Chino, have you seen that Cirque show?  I really like seeing those (seen around 5 of them), didn't even know there was an Avatar themed one.

Negative. It hasn't come to the states yet. I believe it debuts in Texas the second week of February. So far 4 or 5 cities have been announced. I'll definitely check it out when it's in the North East.

You cannot seriously compare the scope of the Star Wars universe with Avatar. Whatever Avatar has, multiply it by literally 100. Literally. The literal definition of literally.

I'm definitely not. I'm just making the point that the universe is expanding and the potential for tons of future content is not out of the realm of reality. There was a time when the Star Wars universe consisted of a single movie, literally. And no, I don't believe Avatar will ever reach the level of fandom that we see in the Star Wars universe, but it can still be huge.

[cramx3]

And this just came up on my facebook feed...

Cirque du Soleil
Sponsored ·
Experience Cirque du Soleil KURIOS & TORUK – The First Flight live in New York this fall!

[Chino]

And this just came up on my facebook feed...

Cirque du Soleil
Sponsored ·
Experience Cirque du Soleil KURIOS & TORUK – The First Flight live in New York this fall!

 

It looks like a hell of a show.









I can't wait.

[Kotowboy]

That is so not my cup of tea in the slightest.

[Kotowboy]

I loved the 1st movie but can't get excited for 3 sequels or a theme park or whatever else.

I just wish JC would move on to something else ASAP.

I'm way more excited about his proposed A Fantastic Voyage remake.

If it's anything like Innerspace but with modern graphics and James Cameron directing - holy crap.

Avatar but with only humans and instead of Pandora - it's the inside of a human body.

Fuck the Avatar sequels - I WANT THAT.

[cramx3]

They are really cool to see, pictures cannot do it justice. 

I would definitely like to see this since they are such cool shows.  Also, the music is FANTASTIC (which is all live).

[orcus116]

How come when it comes to Avatar, many people say things like "why do you need 4 movies to explain a group of blue people?" and "Is there anything left to tell? Cameron just wants a cash grab", but when it comes to Star Wars, the world seems ready to accept as many stories as they could possibly come up with?

Because the Avatar story had no substance.

[BlackInk]

While the story is clearly a recycled one from several other movies, I think saying that that story has no substace is a bit unfair.

[Chino]

How come when it comes to Avatar, many people say things like "why do you need 4 movies to explain a group of blue people?" and "Is there anything left to tell? Cameron just wants a cash grab", but when it comes to Star Wars, the world seems ready to accept as many stories as they could possibly come up with?

Because the Avatar story had no substance.

That's just incorrect.

[hefdaddy42]

The whole foundation of Star Wars is a Galactic Empire, which by definition opens itself up for an entire galaxy's worth of plot, intrigue, and conflict.

Avatar is one planet (two if you count Earth), with people from Earth as the evil colonialist pigs. 

Like, I don't even see how you can ask the question.

[Kotowboy]

But let's be clear. Disney didn't pay $4bn for Lucasfilm to tell stories.

[Chino]

The whole foundation of Star Wars is a Galactic Empire, which by definition opens itself up for an entire galaxy's worth of plot, intrigue, and conflict.

Avatar is one planet (two if you count Earth), with people from Earth as the evil colonialist pigs. 

Like, I don't even see how you can ask the question.

Why was Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings so huge? Those were just as small in scope as Avatar.

[BlobVanDam]

The whole foundation of Star Wars is a Galactic Empire, which by definition opens itself up for an entire galaxy's worth of plot, intrigue, and conflict.

Avatar is one planet (two if you count Earth), with people from Earth as the evil colonialist pigs. 

Like, I don't even see how you can ask the question.

Why was Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings so huge? Those were just as small in scope as Avatar.

Lord of the Rings small in scope / comparable to Avatar?



Excuse me while I LMAO

[Chino]

The whole foundation of Star Wars is a Galactic Empire, which by definition opens itself up for an entire galaxy's worth of plot, intrigue, and conflict.

Avatar is one planet (two if you count Earth), with people from Earth as the evil colonialist pigs. 

Like, I don't even see how you can ask the question.

Why was Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings so huge? Those were just as small in scope as Avatar.

Lord of the Rings small in scope / comparable to Avatar?



Excuse me while I LMAO

It was three movies of people walking to a volcano.

[Kotowboy]

It was three extremely tedious movies of people walking to a volcano.

FTFY

[BlobVanDam]

It was three movies of people walking to a volcano.

That's such an oversimplification that I wonder if you're just trolling popular franchises out of spite at this point.

[Kotowboy]

People over simplify Avatar too.

" People ONLY went to see it because it was 3D. "

But :

Re: Will the new Star Wars movie top Avatar at the box office?

The answer is : No.

[senecadawg2]

Based on what I've read in the past, I'm probably one of the few people on the forums who actually agrees with Chino in regards to Avatar. Great movie which I saw several times; awesome cinematic experience.

But the LOTR comparison is ridiculous. Even scope aside (I mean, really?), I think the all three of the LOTR are far superior films on every level.

[Chino]

It was three movies of people walking to a volcano.

That's such an oversimplification that I wonder if you're just trolling popular franchises out of spite at this point.

Now you know how I feel when I hear "It's just Pochahontas in space"

[Kotowboy]

"It's just Pochahontas in space"

"It's just Dance With Wolves in space"

"It's just Ferngully in space"

"It's just Smurfs in space"

[BlobVanDam]

It was three movies of people walking to a volcano.

That's such an oversimplification that I wonder if you're just trolling popular franchises out of spite at this point.

Now you know how I feel when I hear "It's just Pochahontas in space"

So I'm right then.
Except that the simplification is much more honest in the case of Avatar than LOTR. Avatar is a simple and familiar story. Nothing in particular wrong with that, but it is what it is. Given your apparent lack of general movie viewing it's probably less of an issue for you than others, but the main appeal of the movie is the visuals, not its scope or depth. Some movies tell a simple story, but tell it very well.
LOTR is a very rich and fleshed out world, and that 3 movie walk to a volcano interweaved with a lot of subplots that all played an important part to the story. I don't even see grounds for comparison in that regard.

[Kotowboy]

I'll say it over and over again but - Avatar's simple story sold it for me.

A movie can be very enjoyable if you know exactly what's coming.

The pacing was also great. it just kept building towards the climax.

[BlobVanDam]

As I said, nothing in particular wrong with it, as long as it's told well. A lot of modern movies have a tendency to over-plot and move too fast imo, and end up making no sense in the process. I'd rather a simple story told well, which leaves room for character moments.

[Kotowboy]

Titanic had a very simple plot. very similar to Avatar.

Cameron has a knack for making simple stories into enjoyable movies.

[orcus116]

A movie can be very enjoyable if you know exactly what's coming.

That does not work for me when seeing a movie for the first time since I expect more from something of this scale. The predictability made the movie utterly boring.

[Kotowboy]

For you.

[Zantera]

Orcus has a point. With something as big as Avatar you expect some kind of originality. We will probably get that from the sequels, or at least I hope so. I only saw the original Avatar twice back when it came out. The first time it was alright, because despite a very predictable story, the visuals looked good in 3D and as a movie-going experience it was enjoyable enough. But on the second viewing (home video), it didn't have that same experience, the visuals looked fine (but let's face it, always worse at home like all films) and it didn't have an interesting story or good characters to fall back on, so it just became a fairly average film.

[Kotowboy]

The Force Awakens has officially made $2bn worldwide.

It has over $180m to even equal Titanic let alone Avatar at another $800m.

It had a good run though. Only the third ever movie to make $2bn .

Plus the first movie ever to make $900m domestically.

[TL]

It's worth noting, in its original run, Titanic made 1.8 billion. Its current total includes a large scale re-release a few years ago that made about 300 million.

Now, a re-release making $300 million is impressive, I'm not disputing that. I'm just saying, for an accurate comparison, TFA is already past Titanic.
Avatar's spot on the list is definitely safe for now though.

Edit: Also, there's a chance that TFA's domestic total could pass the original worldwide run of The Phantom Menace ($924 million). 

[Kotowboy]

It needs to.