Prior to Avatar, the highest grossing film of all time was Titanic. A film where quite literally™ anyone not living in a cave on some Pacific island knew the ending, and it was, in the main, a mawkish romance novel grafted onto a thin base of historic facts.
In a different vein, My Big Fat Greek Wedding - something in the Golden Age of Hollywood would’ve been a dime-a-dozen, perfectly frivolous comedy - makes $369 million against a budget of $5 million, which probably wouldn’t even cover catering on a Marvel film.
Sometimes a film just captures the public’s imagination, and no amount of too-cool-for-school reasoning can unwind it.
Who has never seen Avatar …. Love the ride, tried watching the movie when it was on TV once, could not do it. (I hated Titanic, I vowed never to watch another James Cameron movie )
I loved Titanic and have watched it several times. I actually liked the fact they gave us an intriguing story set to the events of what actually happened. Reading about it (the sinking) just doesn’t capture the reality of what it must have been like as much as this movie does. They didn’t get it all right, but I don’t care. The story was compelling…but even more so was watching it all played out, and how things could have been so much better if elitism and arrogance hadn’t tainted people’s actions.
I’ve never seen it, also tried once and couldn’t get through it. I’ve also never seen Titanic in full, though I have seen from where they start sinking to the end.
Ok. This I can appreciate. Why I like to watch different historical fiction things at times. Wider spread scenery.
But I still don’t plan to watch Titanic.
Avatar in 3D was amazing in 2008 even if the visuals don’t stand out today in 2022.
Here is an article by EW a few months ago with Cameron explaining the long delay. In a nutshell, he said that, much like technology needed to be invented for Avatar 1, new tech was needed for Avatar 2 for filming mocap underwater. Whether this is true or not, no idea.
What is really fascinating is the training the actors did to prepare to film underwater. They got SCUBA certified, then went through rigorous breath-holding training so they could film longer stints underwater. Actors could hold their breath for as long as 7 minutes, including Sigourney Weaver (yeah, she died in Avatar 1, but she’s somehow back…maybe she has an identical twin like Jake had!)
I believe #2 and #3 were filmed together, and #4 and #5 will be filmed later. Disney/Fox already has them scheduled for Decembers in 2022, 2024, 2026, and 2028.
Those of you expressing enthusiasm for sequels to Avatar:
The Congregation of Faith has determined that Avatar is not canon and may not be viewed by the True Faithful without entering into an Occasion of Sin. One must be as a child, and evince perfect ignorance and perfect lack of interest. Doing otherwise goes beyond heresy to apostasy. It is a short final step to excommunication.
Get right in your thinking or you will face eternity in the outer darkness.
…. Love the ride, tried watching the movie when it was on TV once, could not do it. (I hated Titanic, I vowed never to watch another James Cameron movie 
)
