There have been many stories circulating around celebrating the genius of James Cameron, and the awe of the film that climbed its way to the top in only 41 days. But does Cameron’s achievement really deserve the top spot in history?
When you combine the Cameron magic of Titanic and The Terminator, you get something a great deal better than you may think.
When “Avatar” hit theaters moviegoers were given something they have not seen in a long time. A real popcorn muncher, and something that is, to put it simply, epic.
Director James Cameron originally attempted to make the film 1999 as an immediate follow-up to his highly successful “Titanic” (1997).
However, the special effects he wanted for the movie ran a proposed budget over of over $400 million. No studio was willing to fund the film, and it was subsequently shelved for almost ten years. With a suspected budget of almost $230,000,000, this is the most expensive movie ever made.
And it isn’t hard to see why, literally. The movie is 40% live action and 60% photo-realistic CGI, including a great deal of motion capture technology for the CGI characters. Though many are apprehensive about Cameron’s story (myself not included), the receptions of the visual design are almost one hundred percent positive. It may even be worth shelling out the extra cash for a blue ray player just for this movie.
And the blue people, they’re great. But as I said before, my favorite thing about this film was not how much a computer science major can enhance an image. Cameron manages to back up his spectacular visuals with a beautiful and heartfelt story. It is a classic heroic struggle between what you have always been taught, and what you are about to learn. (See “Dances With Wolves” but sans the Indians and adding some blue people.)
We haven’t seen a combination like that since Star Wars. And that’s saying something.
But don’t let the CGI fool you. Cameron took the acting in this film very seriously. He took the cast and crew to Hawaii where they spent days hiking through the jungles and living like tribes in order to get a better idea of life on Pandora.
If you can stomach the 3D, do it. It’s worth every penny, several times over.
It may have reached the highest position on the charts, but that doesn’t mean “Avatar” is about to lose steam. With Academy Award nominations just around the corner, though it is not predicted to outshine sister film “Titanic”, there is a chance that it is about to become even more popular.
But now for the tricky part: Many are beginning to argue that Avatar’s climb to the top deserves some sort of asterisk, with a footnote that goes something like this.
Avatar had the advantage of being released in 3D, adding and additional three dollars per ticket. And when you consider that ticket price inflation for even 2D films is at its worst ever, it is more difficult to accept Avatar’s lead.
In fact, adjusting ticket prices for inflation, Avatar ranks as the 26th-highest-grossing film in the U.S., according to Box Office Mojo. And who comes out on top? Gone With The Wind, with $1.5 billion adjusted gross in the U.S., followed by “Star Wars” with $1.3 billion.
For the most part, most of the films at the top are from at least thirty years ago. On the normal all time charts, “Gone with the Wind” does not even make the top 50.
A possible solution has been to do away with the all time chart and only focus on this adjusted list. Or, my personal favorite, base the all time chart on attendance and not money. The cultural significance of a film depends on how many people see the film, not how much they paid to see it.
Whether or not “Avatar” cheated its way to the top, plenty of people like myself have gone and enjoyed what it has to offer. That cannot change whether it is number one or one hundred.
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