"After watching it, I was left wanting more, not feeling the slightest bit bored. Jas Caron used realistic 3D effects to take us into another world. Avatar makes people believe that technological innovation can indeed change the way movies are experienced. Beyond the innovation, Avatar also reflects on politics, culture, environntal protection, race, religion, and many other issues. Director Caron’s ambition is as great as his imagination!"
"This is not a simple film. It’s like a gold mine, worth digging deep into!"
"Avatar is the most beautiful film I’ve seen in recent years!"
"Whether you choose 3D or standard format, the shock and awe brought by Avatar are absolutely worth seeing."
"It’s actually a film we’ve seen before, but also like sothing we’ve never seen. It’s the Star Wars of our ti!"
"Jas Caron proved he really is the king of the world. As the supre commander of the armies of visual effects, biological design, motion capture, stunt perforrs, dancers, actors, music, and sound, he brought science fiction into the 21st century in a jaw-dropping way that’s Avatar!"
Unlike the midnight box office numbers, Avatar almost instantly ignited audience acclaim. This word-of-mouth spread rapidly around the world through personal recomndation and the internet.
Compared to sequels or adapted blockbusters, Avatar’s midnight box office was indeed a bit lower. But this was completely within Duke’s expectations—after all, this was an original film.
The film industry has developed to this point, yet there has never been an original, non-adapted or non-sequel movie that broke $100 million in its opening weekend. Even those exceeding $70 million are mostly Duke’s works.
Another undeniable fact: Jas Caron had been away from mainstream cinema for over a decade, and many moviegoers had forgotten him.
Moreover, the environnt’s effect on the film was also evident. From early Thursday, the eastern United States experienced heavy snowfall. The harsh weather of low temperatures and snow also affected theater attendance.
All this led to Avatar’s underwhelming midnight box office performance.
Furthermore, this is the fiercely competitive Hollywood. Even with Warner Bros. and 20th Century Fox jointly backing it, a film like Avatar couldn’t avoid the actions of competitors.
For example, dia under Disney couldn’t wait to mock Avatar right after the midnight box office figures were released.
"The most expensive film in history = the biggest box office disaster in history!"
Just this headline was shocking enough. It made people think Avatar was terrible and unpopular with audiences.
"After watching Avatar and enduring a long visual bombardnt in 3D, all those so-called ingenious ideas vanished with the images. Aside from so sensory stimulation, the story, thes, characters, and even so pleasing visuals all felt familiar. The hundreds of millions of dollars in investnt amounted to a mix of successful comrcial blockbusters with no fresh content to savor. The so-called revolution is rely a delusional fantasy."
"Avatar’s creative process reflects today’s trend of comparing investnt size and scale in comrcial films. Its constant borrowing from others shows everything except originality."
"In terms of imagination, the love story in Avatar is the dumbest part. As the plot progresses, it mixes typical elents like hero and beauty, bows and cannons. From eting, misunderstanding, family opposition, to resolving conflict, the handso guy rebelling for love follows the usual arc; justice defeats evil, bad guys die horribly, good guys laugh at the end, and love lasts forever... All of Hollywood’s clichés are here."
"As for the special effects, the only slightly praised part of the film, even those scenes can’t be called revolutionary. Previous films like Jurassic Park, Star Wars, The Matrix, The Lord of the Rings, and King Kong all ca earlier and were just as good."
"This ti Caron rely integrated them and used 3D technology."
But their opinions clearly weren’t mainstream and couldn’t stop audiences from entering theaters. As ti went on, many Hollywood professionals also saw Avatar and praised it highly.
"Movies have a new set of rules now. Avatar is the future!" Michael Bay
"You can divide film history into ’before Avatar’ and ’after Avatar’." — Steven Soderbergh
"This is a ’perceptual’ film, making your work look different. I should start studying 3D films too." — Ridley Scott
"The first audience of sound films was shocked by sound; the first audience of color films was amazed by color. Avatar achieved the sa thing." — George Lucas
"The Renaissance of film history." — Luc Besson
Praise from true professionals and word-of-mouth among audiences drove the Avatar craze.
On Saturday alone, Avatar earned $26.75 million in North Arica. This result wasn’t bad, but also not excellent.
Warner Bros. and 20th Century Fox, still holding large promotional budgets, weren’t in a hurry. They intensified their marketing efforts once again. At this key mont for boosting Avatar’s box office, they used every promotional tool available and even, with Jas Caron’s permission, hyped up all five of his truck driver marriages...
By Saturday, the snowstorm in the eastern U.S. worsened. Pedestrians and vehicles couldn’t move normally. Avatar was affected, and box office figures slightly dipped but the drop was only 4.6%, with daily earnings reported at $22.15 million.
Adding Sunday’s $24.74 million, Avatar earned $77.02 million over its first three days in North Arica.
Among original films, this result was definitely exceptional. But compared to the massive investnt and to blockbuster adaptations like Iron Man or Transforrs, Avatar’s box office seed modest.
Naturally, so dia outlets stepped up again to criticize.
"Avatar’s story is undoubtedly too clichéd. For a top-tier annual blockbuster, the story gave no surprises from trailer to release. It will eventually expose the 3D movie scam and shatter Jas Caron’s myth!"
"Avatar’s plot inevitably reminds people of the equally hollow Titanic. The story is really diocre visually fresh, environntally thed, that’s all. For those who’ve seen 3D films before, it’s far from shocking! There’s basically nothing worth savoring afterward! The consequence of over-focusing on technology is the emptiness of thought!"
So people even hyped that Jas Caron’s Avatar was plagiarizing a Japanese work—Castle in the Sky...
Moreover, Avatar’s rating on IMDb wasn’t particularly high either. Three days after its release, it quietly dropped below eight points.
However, facts never shift based on certain people’s will. The box office performance of Avatar is proving that a film’s earnings have little to do with certain ratings.
In the four weekdays following the opening weekend, Avatar did not experience the usual dramatic box office drop. Daily box office revenue stayed at a high level of around $15 million, and by the ti the second weekend arrived, it had already raked in nearly $140 million in North Arica.
Those with keen market instincts could already sense that Avatar’s montum couldn’t be asured by conventional market logic.
Another point: relatively speaking, IMDb scores are indeed more respected in the industry than Rotten Tomatoes freshness, but still quite limited. Anyone who knows this industry even a little would easily notice that IMDb ratings have very little connection to a movie’s box office.
In fact, there’s a commonly acknowledged phenonon regarding IMDb: logically, on average, and all else being equal, people who watch a film without much promotion tend to give high scores, but they’re few in number; those who weren’t likely to enjoy it but ca due to heavy promotion and high expectations tend to give low scores, but they’re the majority.
This is why independent films often have very high scores (most of the voters are fans); whereas box office miracles often have relatively lower scores (promotion brought in those who wouldn’t like it anyway).
So being well-received critically and being a box office hit, high ratings and high revenue, often indeed contradict each other fundantally.
This was vividly reflected in both Titanic and Avatar.
But Avatar was destined to be like Titanic, a film that wouldn’t follow conventional market logic. This was fully reflected in its second weekend box office numbers in North Arica.
On its second weekend in North Arica, Avatar displayed a god-like trend—its box office dropped only 1.8% from its opening weekend, grossing $75.61 million over three days!
For a comrcial film, this is nothing short of a miracle!
Seeing those second-weekend numbers, anyone who had doubts could fully give up, and Duke, Warner Bros., and 20th Century Fox could basically rest easy.
Especially Duke he firmly believed this film was bound to surpass Titanic’s box office record, with high-priced 3D and IMAX versions being solid guarantees.
In the two weekends that followed, Avatar absolutely stunned every prediction company. Its third weekend drop was only 9.4%, grossing $68.49 million; the fourth weekend drop expanded to 26%, still bringing in $50.3 million; the fifth weekend drop shrank to 14%, earning $42.78 million...
Avatar never had a single weekend of explosive earnings, but its stability was frightening.
During the sixth weekend, while Duke was leading the Inception crew to shoot on location in Morocco, Avatar even saw a reversal though only by 8.1%, it still took in $54.4 million, pushing its total North Arican box office past the $500 million mark!
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