AVATAR, the movie...

[AcuDefTechGuy]

not sure where they are charging $19! )

That would be somewhere in California.

 

[Chatta]

The movie is great, i just saw it on 2d..and im looking forward for the 3d and bluray disc. I was impressed by his splendid visuals.

 

[Soundman]

Highest grossing of all time is such a BS number when not adjusted for inflation. Movie prices have risen so drastically that it takes many fewer people to see a movie these days to rank it highly compared to past years. For Avatar this is further exaggerated by the fact that they charge even more money to attend an IMAX film.

I prefer to look at the inflation adjusted list, which measures by tickets sold. Unfortunately this list only shows data for the US and Canada, but it's very telling- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_films_in_the_United_States_and_Canada. From that list, you can see that only 2 movies in the last 30 years make the top 10 (Star Wars misses the cut by 3 years), and you have to drop to 27 before you find a movie from the last decade (Dark Knight).

There are many reasons for these drastic differences and I accept all of the arguments, I just find it a bit ridiculous that we get so hung up on nominal dollars for ranking movies without taking into account that ticket prices have been jacked up to ridiculous levels over the years.

You can't go by number of tickets sold. That is not an accurate way to adjust for inflation, nor does it tell the true story of how financially successful a movie is. There is a formula for calculating for inflation. I believe this can be found on boxofficemojo.com, however, I'm not sure if this accounts for international currencies. That can get a little hairly since adjustments against the dollar are made daily. Technically , if we use this method then "Gone with the Wind" is the highest grossing movie of all time. It's not really fair to compare movies from different time periods, but that's the way it is. The fact that the movie has made more because of it being in 3-D theatres should not matter. They had to invest significantly more money in the project to develop this technology in hopes that it would payoff in the long run. The producers took a big risk by doing this, so they should be rewarded for this with increased revenue from 3-d theatres. It would be interesting to see the amount of profit these movies actually generate. Once you factor in production budget, marketing budget, etc, the price to make these movies goes up significantly, particularly Avatar which took a massive amount of money to make. I don't think the exact figures have been released. In the end, I believe Avatar will end up being a very sucessful film.

 

[aberkowitz]

You can't go by number of tickets sold. That is not an accurate way to adjust for inflation, nor does it tell the true story of how financially successful a movie is. There is a formula for calculating for inflation. I believe this can be found on boxofficemojo.com, however, I'm not sure if this accounts for international currencies. That can get a little hairly since adjustments against the dollar are made daily. Technically , if we use this method then "Gone with the Wind" is the highest grossing movie of all time.

Box Office Mojo adjusts for inflation only for US box office revenues. I actually believe their method is more accurate that merely taking 19XX dollars and turning them into 2009 dollars (can't do 2010 just yet) because they are isolating the inflation of attending a movie. This method can actually end up understating the actual inflation on the value of $1 that would have had over a similar period.

They simply take the number of tickets sold and multiply it by the average cost of attending a movie in a given year. For example, the average cost of a movie in 1939 was $0.23 and the average cost of a movie in 2009 was $7.18. If you sold 10,000 tickets in 1939 your movie would have made $2300, which in today's dollars works out to $71,800.

They wisely don't try to get involved in currencies, so they only look at US sales.

 

[mtrycrafts]

.... In the end, I believe Avatar will end up being a very sucessful film.

They will certainly get my $$ when the BD comes out Preferably at a discount.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

They will certainly get my $$ when the BD comes out Preferably at a discount.

Yeah, like $15.

But I don't mind paying $30 for Avatar BD.

 

[Soundman]

Yeah, like $15.

But I don't mind paying $30 for Avatar BD.

Yeah, I prefer to pay $15 or less per movie, but my wife might make me buy it when it comes out since she liked it so much. We'll see how that goes, but I really don't like paying more then $20-25 at the most.

 

[gene]

Saw the movie last week at a 3-D IMAX theater. The experience was incredible. This is truly a benchmark film that others will attempt to equal. Despite its mediocre cast and story, the wife and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

 

[aberkowitz]

Yeah, I prefer to pay $15 or less per movie, but my wife might make me buy it when it comes out since she liked it so much. We'll see how that goes, but I really don't like paying more then $20-25 at the most.

I was just shocked that people were paying that much more to see this movie outside of the NYC area. Generally we have some of the most expensive movie prices in the country, but NYC IMAX tickets are $17 and I was able to see it in NJ for $14. Not that I'm complaining.... I would have paid $20 for the experience.

 

[majorloser]

I was just shocked that people were paying that much more to see this movie outside of the NYC area. Generally we have some of the most expensive movie prices in the country, but NYC IMAX tickets are $17 and I was able to see it in NJ for $14. Not that I'm complaining.... I would have paid $20 for the experience.

Shouldn't they pay you just for going into Jersey?

 

[Quickley17]

Shouldn't they pay you just for going into Jersey?

hahahahaha +1. ( I really do like Jersey, but I love Jersey jokes)

 

[KEW]

While neither the story-line nor the acting was inspiring, but I thought the execution was exceptional.
Definitely not a movie that will "disappear" in a year or two.

 

[avaserfi]

 

[MidnightSensi]

Ahahahaha.

This.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

That is HILARIOUS!!!

I still like AVATAR a lot.

 

[mtrycrafts]

... but I really don't like paying more then $20-25 at the most.

Don't buy it on issue day

... Despite its mediocre cast and story, the wife and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Then, the makers accomplished their goal.

 

[mtrycrafts]

Great indeed.
Perhaps you can do this with a number of others out there too

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Because I liked "Avatar" SO MUCH, I decided to watch "The New World" BD.

I thought, "Avatar is a remake of Pocahontas and it was great; therefore The New World should also be good because it's a remake of Pocahontas".

Man, was I wrong!

Just because it's a retelling of a good old story does not mean it is any good!

If I didn't like Avatar so much and if Pocahontas wasn't so HOT in The New World, there is no way I could have watched this movie!

 

[skizzerflake]

I took a mythology course in college and the prof made an argument that there are only about 6 distinct stories in all of human literature. He outlined them and I can't say that I disagree. Avatar is one of them, stories that have a well adapted "golden age" culture that is invaded by barbaric outsiders. A messiah/leader emerges and leads "the people" to a righteous victory. A less positive spin is a tragic loss by The People. Sometimes the leader is one of the evil ones who realizes that The People have a more pure and valid life and joins as one of them. This plot isn't original and was already about 5,000 years old when Pocahontas and Dances With Wolves was written. It remains a good story after thousands of years. The people that have accused Avatar of being mainly a Liberal, environmental screed apparently have not read much or they would have recognized one of the basic plots in all human history.

 

[mtrycrafts]

I took a mythology course in college and the prof made an argument that there are only about 6 distinct stories in all of human literature. He outlined them and I can't say that I disagree. Avatar is one of them, stories that have a well adapted "golden age" culture that is invaded by barbaric outsiders. A messiah/leader emerges and leads "the people" to a righteous victory. A less positive spin is a tragic loss by The People. Sometimes the leader is one of the evil ones who realizes that The People have a more pure and valid life and joins as one of them. This plot isn't original and was already about 5,000 years old when Pocahontas and Dances With Wolves was written. It remains a good story after thousands of years. The people that have accused Avatar of being mainly a Liberal, environmental screed apparently have not read much or they would have recognized one of the basic plots in all human history.

That is an interesting background you have there

Yes, people see whatever they want to see in stories