Showing posts with label Avatar. Show all posts

The Academy Smiles With Both Faces  

Posted by: Gwen Stewart in , ,


It worked. Over 41 million people watched the telecast on ABC, a 14 percent increase from the year before, according to preliminary ratings data from Nielsen Media Research. It was the largest Oscar audience since 2005, when 42 million people watched “Million Dollar Baby” win the top award.

But the trophy winners were largely in sharp contrast to the broadcast’s big-tent ambitions, revealing an Academy with a split personality. Given the impressive ratings bump, some agents and producers predicted that the split would remain: it was awards and a show — not an awards show.

Tom Sherak, the Academy’s president, said the Oscars had always had two faces, one pointed toward the industry and one toward the public. “Two different things have to happen on that night, and it isn’t easy to do,” Mr. Sherak said in a telephone interview on Monday.

“It isn’t the public who votes, it’s the public who cheers,” he continued, referring to the ceremony’s function as entertainment. As for the awards themselves, Mr. Sherak said: “I think the Academy voters did what they do. You and I might disagree with one thing or another. But they did what they needed to do.”

Missing for many industry insiders was the organic sense of drama that came with past shows in which a popular film like “Titanic” or “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” built to a climax by picking up prize after prize — or when “The Aviator” built momentum through the minor awards in 2005, only to see the major Oscars slip away as "Million Dollar Baby" claimed the top prize. In those shows the awards actually were the entertainment.

By contrast, Sunday’s entertainment value was in many ways grafted on in a process that could seem vaguely dishonest at times. If “Up in the Air” was so worthy of monologue attention, why was it snubbed in all six categories in which it was nominated?

Spotlighting the incongruence, “The Hurt Locker,” the big winner with six trophies including best picture, was also one of the least-watched films in its theatrical run to ever win the top prize. It sold about $14.7 million in tickets in North America and about $6.7 million overseas. On its opening weekend in two theaters in New York, its screenwriter, Mark Boal — now an Oscar winner — stood on street corners with his teenage nephew handing out free tickets to passersby with the idea that if they could stack the house, perhaps the theater owners would book it for another week.

Meanwhile, “Avatar,” the 20th Century Fox picture that has sold over $2.5 billion in tickets at the global box office, was shut out of the top categories, winning three awards in the more technical races. (It had nine nominations going in, a tie with the independently financed “Hurt Locker.”) “Inglourious Basterds,” a substantial hit from the Weinstein Company and Universal Pictures, had eight nominations, but left with one win, a supporting actor statuette for Christoph Waltz.

0 comments

Avatar At #1  

Posted by: Gwen Stewart in ,



It’s a HIT! AVATAR becomes the HIGHEST grossing movie of all time.
It was only recently that news came pouring in (with everyday bringing news on Avatar) as James Cameron’s epic film about a planet inhabited by blue alien is on the race to be the number one box office hit in history. Occupying the number one spot back then is Titanic which was also created by James Cameron.  After less than six weeks since it was first shown, the Avatar won over Titanic as it exceeds in the number of gross profit.
Records search reveals Titanic, which was shown from 1997 to 1998, got the total of $1.843 billion. Last Tuesday, the worldwide box office total of Avatar at $1.859 billion, took the spot which was once hold by Titanic.

Background check for the duration of its showing, Avatar took hold of audiences in most countries, including the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Russia, Britain, and Australia. Ticket sales got more boosted from premium prices for 3-D screenings. Fox said 72 percent of worldwide sales come from 3-D shows.

Avatar, which public records search reveals, that Avatar’s almost five years in the making, was one of the most expensive films with a budget of at least $300 million mostly for the special effects and the creation of the language used by the Na’vi race.
Just recently, Avatar won the Golden Globe best movie drama. By February this year, Avatar is said to be on its way to the Oscars as a leading contender. At this point, question now arises whether there would finally be a Sci-fi for an Oscar winner. With the Golden Globe and the Number one box office hit, people are now hoping for the best.


0 comments

James Cameron did it again! Avatar history’s highest-grossing film  

Posted by: Gwen Stewart in , ,


LOS ANGELES — James Cameron’s science-fiction epic “Avatar” has passed his “Titanic” to become history’s highest-grossing film, with a sizable boost from higher-priced tickets for 3-D and Imax showings.

“Avatar,” like other contemporary films, has also benefited from the steady inflation of ticket prices —today’s average is $7.46, up from $4.69 in 1998 when “Titanic” was in theaters — meaning that “Titanic” had to sell many more tickets to reach box-office totals like “Avatar’s.” But “Avatar” remains poised to keep going for weeks if not months.

Through Monday its ticket sales around the world reached $1.86 billion, edging past the $1.84 billion in sales posted by “Titanic,” which came out in December 1997, according to figures released Tuesday by 20th Century Fox.

Fox released “Avatar” around the world; it split the distribution of “Titanic” with Paramount Pictures.


Through Monday “Avatar” took in about $554.9 million in domestic theaters, placing it just behind “Titanic,” with sales of $600.8 million, in the domestic box-office rankings, and just ahead of “The Dark Knight,” a Warner Brothers film from 2008, which took in $533.3 million.

The performance of “Avatar” is particularly striking because the film — a leading contender in this year’s Oscar race — reached its summit so quickly.
“In just 39 days it has eclipsed the worldwide record,” said Paul Dergarabedian, the president of Hollywood.com’s box-office division. “That’s extraordinarily impressive.”

Mr. Dergarabedian said he thought “Avatar” would pass the domestic box-office mark set by “Titanic” by the middle of next week, and that it is almost certain to pass $2 billion in worldwide sales before the end of its run.


Privately, some involved with the film are guessing that final ticket sales will go as high as $2.5 billion, though Fox has made no public projection. New Line Cinema’s “Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King,” No. 3 in the all-time worldwide rankings, had $1.1 billion in ticket sales, according to Boxofficemojo.com.

Fox said 72 percent of worldwide sales for “Avatar” came from 3-D screens. If Mr. Dergarabedian’s estimates are correct, the movie has accounted for roughly 56 million admissions in domestic theaters to date.


That is about the same number of tickets that “Titanic” had sold at this point in its theatrical run, he said.

But “Titanic” played and played, remaining in theaters until September 1998 and racking up about 128 million admissions. “Avatar” still needs a very long tail to surpass the number of viewers who saw “Titanic.”


To calculate the number of “Avatar” viewers around the world is impossible without taking into account exchange rates and a patchwork of ticket prices and viewing habits in dozens of countries in which the film has been showing.

Large-format Imax theaters have accounted for about $137.1 million of “Avatar” ticket sales around the world, said Greg Foster, president and chairman of Imax Filmed Entertainment. “There’s been only the most minimal drop-off,” he said. Imax theaters are scheduled to continue showing “Avatar” until “Alice in Wonderland,” another 3-D film, from Walt Disney, opens on March 5.


The world record is sweet vindication, both for Mr. Cameron and for Fox. Skeptics had questioned whether Mr. Cameron could deliver on his promise of a revolutionary visual experience, and whether Fox and its financial partners would profit from a film that cost nearly a half-billion dollars to make and release.

While those questions are now settled — the film will make a profit and the critics have been kind — the Academy Awards, scheduled for March 7, remain a hurdle. On Sunday the Producers Guild of America gave its highest movie award, sometimes a harbinger of success at the Oscars, to “The Hurt Locker.” A small, independent drama about the Iraq war, it was directed by Kathryn Bigelow, who is Mr. Cameron’s ex-wife.

On Tuesday Tom Rothman, a chairman of the Fox film operation, said the global success of “Avatar” carried a lesson beyond economics. “It tells you all of us on the planet have more things in common than we have dividing us,” Mr. Rothman said.

0 comments

Avatar: top 2 as Worldwide Blockbuster Hit  

Posted by: Gwen Stewart in , ,



They filmed, they showed and they are still conquering theaters everywhere. It was only weeks ago when news hit how Twilight Saga: New Moon skyrocketed to third place in the worldwide box office hit of all time. It seems last year’s films have hit high notes among audience who can’t seem to get enough of them. Among the movies that both marked a good end to the industry last year and started another historic feat at the same time is Avatar as it takes second place in the worldwide box office hit of all time.
Background check shows that the position once belonged to the third installment of J.R.R. Tolkien’s hit trilogy novel turned movie, Lord of the Ring: Return of the King. The said installment was overtaken by James Cameron’s Sci-fi movie The Avatar after three weeks since its global release in theaters. It was an astounding run for the film that features aliens formed through CGI technology as they earned a total of $1.13 billion dollars.

The success of the Avatar is definitely undeniable public records search on the AICN (Ain’t it cool news) reports that Cameron has officially confirmed about the working on the movie’s sequel. With the previous experiences in using CGI design for the world and characters, it was definitely easier this time to do the follow up of this successful film—or will it? Cameron himself admits it will definitely be hard to go for next Avatar because of its surprising breakthrough in such a short time. 20th Century Fox
James Cameron’s Titanic presently holds the largest top grossing box office hit of all time. When it was shown it gave such a surprise after it was claimed by some that it would definitely flop. However since its premier in the theaters, Titanic has magnetized fans that they seem to keep coming back for more. At the end of its play records search shows the movie to have earned $1.84 billion worldwide.
After twelve years since Titanic became a hit, Avatar was reported to be only $700 plus million behind to make it to number one.  Furthermore there are speculations that at the rate the Avatar is going, it’s not impossible for it to hit number one. With two huge successes currently back to back—and competing—what more can these two films’ creator could ask for?
James Cameron seems to can’t get enough as he also eyes the project which recalls the fate of those who survived and prey victims to atomic bombs during the war in Japan: The Last Train from Hiroshima: The Survivors Look Back. The said film was actually based on a book with the same title.
Background check company reveals James Cameron’s plan as he options to fund the said movie himself, especially by his own production company, Lightstorm Entertainment. This was confirmed by Variety magazine. Only recently, Cameron and the book’s author, Charles Pellegrino, visited Tsutomu Yamaguchi, a survivor of both atomic blasts in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Yamaguchi was interviewed by both Cameron and Pellegrino to discuss the experience of a nuclear explosion.

Eyeing for one great film can’t seem to be enough especially if it’s from James Cameron. With the success of Titanic, followed by Avatar which now vies for a sequel, plus the book turned film, there is more to watch out for and to get fans excited.

0 comments

The Movie Hit Maker: James Cameron  

Posted by: Gwen Stewart in , , ,



Titanic was indeed a huge hit when it was released in movie theaters December 12 1997. Records search shows it to have obtained the highest grossing film in history. Critics take it to be an ambitious and something that may flop which came out to be a big success winning not only the hearts of people worldwide but also eleven Academy Awards including Best Picture. After this titanic hit of a movie director James Cameron went for other fields in filming before coming back with yet another major blockbuster which after three weeks since its first release came out as number one for movie goers—Avatar.



Avatar is set in a planet called Pandora which is inhabited by the people called Navi. In order for humans to gain peaceful negotiations regarding their land  they have devised human controlled bodies which are designed to be like that of the Navi people—the avatar. To control the said genetic breakthrough, an instant people search happens which involves volunteers to take training before facing the said tribe. Unfortunately one of these those who took the training died leaving its twin brother Jake Sully, a former marine to take his place.

Titanic and the Avatar are the clearest examples of what James Cameron is all about: one great talent in movie making. This Canadian film director manages to make great quality movies although there are people who question his strategies. Some of his writings and directing stints are for movies the Terminator, Aliens, The Abyss, Terminator 2, and True Lies; all of which characters have become part of man’s vocabulary and history. With such spectacular movies people began doing background check on how he became the James Cameron we all know.
James Cameron was born in Kapuskasing, Ontario, Canada on August 16, 1954. His father, Phillip, was an electrical engineer while his mother, Shirley, was a nurse. His early interest in filming came about while studying in Fullerton College as he would visit the film archive in the University of Southern California. There he would spend time pulling out graduate thesis and either make copies whenever possible or makes notes instead.
After dropping out and taking several jobs including as a truck driver, he had continued on his writing whenever he had gotten the time. It was when Star Wars hit the big screen that inspired Cameron thus letting him quit his job and pursue directing.

James Cameron went nonstop studying and devising new strategies which opened ideas to filming. One idea was used in Terminator which he later applied to Alien. During those times the people in Alien was questioning him and seem to have trouble agreeing to his tactics, however when the movie was through it had won awards and acknowledgement including their lead actress wining the best actress award in the Academy and making it to the cover of TIMES.
Titanic was perhaps well noted to be James Cameron’s biggest success (especially with that undeniable fact that continued to find a person falling in love over and over again with Jack and Rose), however 12 years and many documentaries and studying 3D Fusion Camera System, he returned to make a blockbuster hit in The Avatar. At present there’s a big possibility that this Cameron movie will take another top grossing position in history. James Cameron is definitely the hit maker whose movies we would want to look out for.

0 comments

James Cameron’s AVATAR: Showing December 18  

Posted by: Gwen Stewart in , , ,



It’s James Cameron’s Avatar this coming December 18 and for those chosen few that had viewed this film, which was estimated to have been budgeted around $300 to $500 Million, was shown. So what does critics say about the most awaited Scifi film of the year (plus the fact that it’s Cameron’s film after Titanic)? It’s time for the “say” of those who had had the privilege of seeing the movie that kept people buzzing (next to New Moon that is).
Titanic was a film from James Cameron that everybody thought would b e a flop. However, public records search shows that it earned Billions worldwide and made blockbuster history. It was one of the best films I personally had ever seen and surely many could agree to this. Now, after twelve years of not directing (except for documentaries and concentrating on developing the 3-D fusion camera system which he used in this new film) he does movies again for a major production in AVATAR.
The story revolves around Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), a US marine who is paralyzed from waist down. He was recruited for the avatar project in the planet of Pandora; mission to do a background check on the planet’s natives called the Na’vi. This was for the humans to have a diplomatic solution to moving the said natives to another location since the place where they are presently based is where important minerals are kept. But with the native’s place being sacred, they refused to such request thus a war broke leaving Sully in a dilemma.
With regards to the visuals, the planet’s atmosphere even the futuristic outlook seemed so realistic bravo to the computer generated technology used. The actors were chosen very well that even their voices fit well with the feel it needs to invoke. However the lowest quality, as said by the critique, is the story itself which didn’t quite meet the expectation like that of Titanic and Terminator 2 (also a film by James Cameron), that did find a person more awestruck especially with the flood of emotions in a particular scene (they made people cry). It is good news however that this film is still highly recommended must-see for the whole family coming this December 18.

1 comments
Older Posts