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Life After Avatar
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The billion-dollar success of James Cameron’s epic has Hollywood scrambling to make more films in 3-D. Kim Masters on the next movie gold rush.
As promised, Avatar is huge. Worldwide, the film boomed to more than $1 billion worth of box office in 17 days, and the declines in ticket sales from weekend to weekend are so minuscule as to be “unprecedented in the annals of box-office tracking,” writes analyst Paul Dergarabedian.
If you think those numbers are lost on Hollywood—well, you don’t really think that, do you? The industry, which had somewhat soured on the whole 3-D, motion-capture thing in the wake of Robert Zemeckis’ gloomy Christmas Carol, is now a lot sweeter on the subject.
“There’s no doubt that people all through the industry over the holidays were thinking, ‘Should we do this movie in 3-D? Is this worthy?’”
“People clearly understood—this is not your father’s 3-D,” says Jim Gianopulos, co-chairman and CEO of Fox Filmed Entertainment. “There was this clarity of comprehension.” And that wasn’t just among filmgoers but among Hollywood insiders, as well.
“There’s no doubt that people all through the industry over the holidays were thinking, ‘Should we do this movie in 3-D? Is this worthy?’” says DreamWorks CEO Stacey Snider. The company has already started talking about when it would make sense to use the technique.
“For us, it isn’t about genre or demographic but more about the scope of the world that you’re creating,” says Snider. Steven Spielberg is already at work on a 3-D and motion-capture film, The Adventures of Tintin, due in theaters in December 2011. But now other projects in development are being considered through the 3-D lens.
The Avatar factor could make the difference on Cowboys and Aliens, a DreamWorks project to be directed by Jon Favreau that starts shooting in July. (Plot line: Settlers and Indians put aside their differences when a spaceship crash-lands in their town.)
Rumor has it that director Ridley Scott decided, late in the game, that he wanted Robin Hood, with Russell Crowe, to be in 3-D. But that film, set to release in May, has already been shot, and Universal has no intention of trying to 3-D-ify it now. (A curious film executive not associated with that project inquired what it would cost to take a movie in progress now and convert it to 3-D. The estimate was that it would add a minimum of $50 million to the budget and possibly three times that much.)
Fox’s Gianopulos says his studio hasn’t yet set a template for deciding which films should be in 3-D, though clearly, certain movies lend themselves more readily to the process. Doing a movie like Sideways in 3-D wouldn’t offer “the same benefit as when you have a banshee flying across a canyon,” he says. But eventually, he says he believes 3-D will become the standard.
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naviblue
Cameron is a genius
Avatar's biggest fansite: Naviblue.com
darcman
Apparently you are a very easy person to impress! Avatar is a good movie but its not a great movie! Quality wise, Titanic was a much better film! When I watched Avatar I could clearly see the influences of other movies and even this one TV show from the 1990's Exosquad! Avatar is part Exosquad, part Lord of the Rings and part Alien! Beyond the tech there was nothing ground breaking, sorry! Even the dialoge was a little shaky!
magoo363
Avatar was not the picture that is making 3D come back, it is simply the new projector/polarized lens combination that came out within the last couple years. It was said that all pictures might go 3D within a few years because the theaters could charge more for ticket prices while the technology to shoot the pictures would get cheaper over time. Even old movies such as Toy Story and Toy Story 2 are being re-released as 3D features at the theater. As for 3D in the home, you can buy 3D movies for your TV (http://www.3dmovielist.com/list.html).The only new technological leap that was overcome in Avatar was the facial motion capture technology, which was amazing and allowed for the computer generated characters to become so much more realistic.
wfleet
Whatever combination of marvels led to Avatar 3D, let's just start to say about X or Y movie, "Let's shoot it in avatar" or "It was shot in avatar."
Avatar 3D is what movies have dreamt of being.
ilpalazzo
First, there were already a slew of movies in production for the new 3D before Avatar was released and successful. It's a pre-meditated wave meant to hit hard and fast before the fad wears off. There's even an HD3DTV due out this year. So it's all a big plan. While I'm sure some of them were waiting to see if Avatar would be a success, it's no surprise that the money-moguls of Hollywood decided to just bank all in beforehand (we see how well decision-makers are with money these days). Avatar may very well be an exceptional movie, but as with the last few 3D fads of the past, there are inevitably crappy movies that come out after the initial success and 3D fades away. But all of this stuff in preparation looks like they are going to make us spend a crapload more money just for frikkin' entertainment. No wonder there's high unemployment.. everyone's playing video games or watching movies instead of aspiring to do anything with their lives.
Secondly, Avatar's box office would really only be about $500 million right now. How did it hit a billion so fast? Uhh.. maybe because the tickets cost twice as much? Seriously, I didn't really want to see the movie, but I did want to see this new technology they were touting. And to be honest, as horrid as Alice in Wonderland looks, I'll see it because I'm sure the 3D will make it very entertaining, just as it did with Avatar.
And you just know when it hits DVD, people are going to find the normal version to be kinda of a crappy 3 hours, as well as most of the other 3d movies, so they'll sell their normal HD TVs and try to get the 3DHDTV for X-Mas, only to then be disappointed the next year or two when the movies become crappy. Or when the next technology hits.
Seriously.. look at all of the money we're churning out on entertainment and technology. It's advancing at light speed. I've given up on it. I've quit video games, computer games, and all that crap. I don't even have an HDTV, much less a flat screen TV. I've reduced my entertainment viewing immensely because I'm 28 and now set on actually accomplishing goals in life instead of being a part of the couch-potato Matrix.
darcman
The reaction to this movie is completely out of proportion! Avatar is a hit not because of its 3D aspects but because it is a decent film! Does anyone really think people will be willing to pay twice as much to see Marley and Me in 3D? Avatar is our once a year event movie that everyone wants to see! Studios that think that the publics enthusiasm for Avatar will transfer to the average film is deluding themselves, that won't happen!
mjonewls
Avatar is my favorite movie of Hollywood after a long time i see that kind of movie.no debut that she does a good role in that movie.i love her character in Avatar.
http://www.goarticles.com/cgi-bin/showa.cgi?C=2236872
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