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[Elano]

anyone think cameron is gonna get his budget back?

 I think he almost certainly will.  The question is when.  Domestically, it made about $73 Million.  But world wide it's already made $232.2 Million, which is the best world wide debut ever, for a non-sequal.  Apparently 20th Century Fox isn't saying exactly how much they spent to make the movie.  But it's rumored to be somewhere between $240 Million and $500 Million.  Granted, that's an enormous amount of money.  But when you factor in long term ticket sales, dvd sales, and licensing, I think they'll definitely recover their investment.  I think how soon they do, depends on whether or not the ticket sales stay strong in the next few following weeks.  My opinion is that it will probably do  quite well this week, because a lot of people go see movies over the Christmas holiday.  But past that, it's hard to say.

Hollywood blockbuster "Avatar" surged to a box office haul of more than one billion US dollars globally on Sunday, faster than any other movie in history, an industry tracker reported.

Aided by consecutive holiday weekends and pricey 3-D tickets, total domestic sales for the science fiction epic reached 352 million US dollars and an eye-popping 670 million internationally, according to estimated figures by Exhibitor Relations.

The astronomical performance since the movie's debut 17 days ago has already sealed its reputation as one of the most impressive box office performers of all time.

"It was the fastest ever to the one-billion-dollar mark," with "Avatar" now the third biggest grossing film ever, behind "Titanic" (1997) and "The Return of the King" (2003), the final movie in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, box office analyst Chad Hartigan of Exhibitor Relations told AFP.

"Avatar" tells the story of paralyzed war veteran Jake, who is sent on a mission from Earth to the planet Pandora, where he falls in love with a blue humanoid named Neytiri of the alien Na'vi race.

Its New Year's weekend ticket sales of 68.3 million US dollars easily set a domestic record for the biggest-ever third weekend for a film, while worldwide sales of 66.4 million for "Avatar" at IMAX also broke the record for the mega-screen format, according to Hollywood.com.

"It was expected to do well, but not this well,' Hartigan said.

Optimistic estimates hovered around 350 million domestically over its total run. "But to have that already in 17 days is ridiculous," Hartigan added.

"It's holding so well from week to week, at this point the sky seems to be the limit."

"Avatar" is director James Cameron's first film since the 1997 Oscar-winner "Titanic," which suffered production delays and severe criticism for its bloated budget, but eventually became the highest-grossing film of all time.

His latest masterpiece became the most expensive film ever made, at up to 500 million US dollars.

"That poor guy is up against it every time," Hartigan said. "He seems to encounter serious doubt, and then delivers."

The previous weekend, earning 75.6 million US dollars from Friday to Sunday, the film helped boost the North American box office to the highest-grossing weekend in movie history, at nearly 270 million US dollars.

The figure smashed the previous best weekend mark of 260.3 million set in July 2008, when Batman blockbuster "The Dark Knight" opened to huge audiences in Canada and the United States.

[Chad Vader]

pretty silly, i guess the new way to sell movies is going to be hype it up for half a year & then give an average plot with ridiculous graphics.

New way to sell movies? Where have you been?

i can't remember the last movie that had this much hype & was so far away from meeting that hype.

How about the last three Star Wars films? Phantom Menace had way more hype than Avatar and it was a huge let down.

i didn't pay much attention to it.

i mean, i saw it; thought it was alright, but didn't pay attention to the hype of it.

I barely heard that much hype for Avatar all things considered.
When Phantom Menace was being released they had cross promotions with Pepsi for can collecting.
They released the old movies again to set it up. They had news coverage of people in line days before the opening.
It was ridiculous.

True,and you know what I totally missed out on the hype around this movie.
(heard about it a couple of weeks before it premiered.  )

[Shallow]

pretty silly, i guess the new way to sell movies is going to be hype it up for half a year & then give an average plot with ridiculous graphics.

New way to sell movies? Where have you been?

i can't remember the last movie that had this much hype & was so far away from meeting that hype.

How about the last three Star Wars films? Phantom Menace had way more hype than Avatar and it was a huge let down.

i didn't pay much attention to it.

i mean, i saw it; thought it was alright, but didn't pay attention to the hype of it.

I barely heard that much hype for Avatar all things considered.
When Phantom Menace was being released they had cross promotions with Pepsi for can collecting.
They released the old movies again to set it up. They had news coverage of people in line days before the opening.
It was ridiculous.

True,and you know what I totally missed out on the hype around this movie.
(heard about it a couple of weeks before it premiered.  )

Dark Knight had way more hype than Avatar. Dark Knight lived up to some of it, but not all of it.

[Chamillitary Click]

pretty silly, i guess the new way to sell movies is going to be hype it up for half a year & then give an average plot with ridiculous graphics.

New way to sell movies? Where have you been?

i can't remember the last movie that had this much hype & was so far away from meeting that hype.

How about the last three Star Wars films? Phantom Menace had way more hype than Avatar and it was a huge let down.

i didn't pay much attention to it.

i mean, i saw it; thought it was alright, but didn't pay attention to the hype of it.

I barely heard that much hype for Avatar all things considered.
When Phantom Menace was being released they had cross promotions with Pepsi for can collecting.
They released the old movies again to set it up. They had news coverage of people in line days before the opening.
It was ridiculous.

True,and you know what I totally missed out on the hype around this movie.
(heard about it a couple of weeks before it premiered.  )

Dark Knight had way more hype than Avatar. Dark Knight lived up to some of it, but not all of it.

i think it lived up to all of it.

[Shallow]

With out changing the thread; I thought Dark Knight dragged on too long. The action scenes were lackluster for an action film. The drama was too 2D for a drama. Heath was incredible as the Joker and most of the Joker scenes were incredible, but at times it was too subtle and then to make up for that it became too blunt with the message. The Two Face origin and storyline was stupid. I still think it's the best Superhero film ever.

[bez]

Great film! Loved it!

[thisoneguy360]

Saw it yesterday, AMAZING visuals and special effects, but with that said, I found the story to be corny as fuck.

[eazye]

Got to agree with the above post, I thought it was way too cliched plot and story wise.Everything else was really amazing tho

[jeromechickenbone]

Said this in another thread:

Easily one of the best movies I've seen in a long time.

I had no interest in seeing this movie initially because of all the hype.  But then I understood what it was about and wanted to see it.

I mean yall understand that this is no fantasy movie right?  I mean this is what is happening right now in our world.  The US in particular has murdered MILLIONS of people in the middle east, destroyed their holy land all for some obsolete energy sources which simply equates to them having power and control.

Then again, whitey has been slaughtering indigenous people for thousands of years.

It's got a much better message then damn near all the other psychotic sociopathic destructive mindless killing crap that dirty ass hollywood forces down your throat.

Fantastic movie.

Plus the Vatican and some military cats are condemning this flick.  And hopefully yall are smart enough to know that when those corrupt motherfuckers don't like something that it's because it really exposes these evil pigs agendas and makes them nervous that the people will actually wake up to what's really going on.

So that right there should let you know that this flick and it's message is legit.

I'm glad it's doing so well.

[J.D. Wykid, Esq.]

i have no interest in seeing this movie and the special effects dont do shit for me. 

id rather see a movie with a good story and NO cgi than a corny ass plot, which most people say it has, with 'amazing' gfx.

and LOL @ people always saying "im waiting 3D to become big".  man, 3d been around for a long ass time.  its NEVER going to be big.  its a gimmick and it wears off after a while. 

yall hear about the 3D tv theyre making?  lmao.  people are gonna drool over that for the first few months then get over it, like usual.   

[Mr. O]

Got to agree with the above post, I thought it was way too cliched plot and story wise.Everything else was really amazing tho

cliched? explain. Apprently, I didn't see lot of movies that defend planets...doing the right thing type of movies.

[Javier]

Got to agree with the above post, I thought it was way too cliched plot and story wise.Everything else was really amazing tho

cliched? explain. Apprently, I didn't see lot of movies that defend planets...doing the right thing type of movies.

I don't want to sound fucked up, but are you joking or being serous?

[13th Duke]

i have no interest in seeing this movie and the special effects dont do shit for me. 

id rather see a movie with a good story and NO cgi than a corny ass plot, which most people say it has, with 'amazing' gfx.

and LOL @ people always saying "im waiting 3D to become big".  man, 3d been around for a long ass time.  its NEVER going to be big.  its a gimmick and it wears off after a while. 

yall hear about the 3D tv theyre making?  lmao.  people are gonna drool over that for the first few months then get over it, like usual.   

how do you know it has a corny ass plot if you've never seen it

plus there's more to the movie than what these fools are talking about. I'd say the main theme is nature.

Yeah I'd agree with you there. The 3d and the CGI is more at face value, but if you watch the film its very rewarding and the storyline is strong. I think its a case of when any film gets a ridiculous amount of hype certain people want to hate it. Sometimes I'm like that with big films and I was honestly expecting it to be average but thought it was great. Best film of 2009 for me.

[J.D. Wykid, Esq.]

i have no interest in seeing this movie and the special effects dont do shit for me. 

id rather see a movie with a good story and NO cgi than a corny ass plot, which most people say it has, with 'amazing' gfx.

and LOL @ people always saying "im waiting 3D to become big".  man, 3d been around for a long ass time.  its NEVER going to be big.  its a gimmick and it wears off after a while. 

yall hear about the 3D tv theyre making?  lmao.  people are gonna drool over that for the first few months then get over it, like usual.   

how do you know it has a corny ass plot if you've never seen it

plus there's more to the movie than what these fools are talking about. I'd say the main theme is nature.

[Chad Vader]

Avatar Passes ANH On Domestic Charts
http://www.theforce.net/latestnews/story/Avatar_Passes_ANH_On_Domestic_Charts_128830.asp


With yet another very strong weekend raking in another $41.3 million,
James Cameron's Avatar has surpassed the original Star Wars on the all time domestic box office charts.
A New Hope drops down to #4 as Avatar now holds the #3 spot with a new total of $491.8 million.

From ABC News:

'"Avatar" topped the original "Star Wars," which took in $460.9 million domestically in its original run and several reissues over the years.
But factoring in today's higher admission prices, "Star Wars" remains well ahead of "Avatar" on actual number of tickets sold.

"Avatar" now is closing in on "The Dark Knight," No. 2 domestically with $533.3 million.
After that, only Cameron's "Titanic" at $600 million will remain ahead of "Avatar" domestically."

Click here for the full write-up at ABCNews.com.