"After watching it, I was left wanting more, not feeling the slightest bit bored. James Cameron used realistic 3D effects to take us into another world. Avatar makes people believe that technological innovation can indeed change the way movies are experienced. Beyond the innovation, Avatar also reflects on politics, culture, environmental protection, race, religion, and many other issues. Director Cameron’s ambition is as great as his imagination!" "This is not a simple film. It’s like a gold mine, worth digging deep into!" "Avatar is the most beautiful film I’ve seen in recent years!" "Whether you choose 3D or standard format, the shock and awe brought by Avatar are absolutely worth seeing." "It’s actually a film we’ve seen before, but also like something we’ve never seen. It’s the Star Wars of our time!" "James Cameron proved he really is the king of the world. As the supreme commander of the armies of visual effects, biological design, motion capture, stunt performers, dancers, actors, music, and sound, he brought science fiction into the 21st century in a jaw-dropping way that’s Avatar!" Unlike the midnight box office numbers, Avatar almost instantly ignited audience acclaim. This word-of-mouth spread rapidly around the world through personal recommendation and the internet. Compared to sequels or adapted blockbusters, Avatar’s midnight box office was indeed a bit lower. But this was completely within Duke’s expectations—after all, this was an original film. The film industry has developed to this point, yet there has never been an original, non-adapted or non-sequel movie that broke $100 million in its opening weekend. Even those exceeding $70 million are mostly Duke’s works. Another undeniable fact: James Cameron had been away from mainstream cinema for over a decade, and many moviegoers had forgotten him. Moreover, the environment’s effect on the film was also evident. From early Thursday, the eastern United States experienced heavy snowfall. The harsh weather of low temperatures and snow also affected theater attendance. All this led to Avatar’s underwhelming midnight box office performance. Furthermore, this is the fiercely competitive Hollywood. Even with Warner Bros. and 20th Century Fox jointly backing it, a film like Avatar couldn’t avoid the actions of competitors. For example, media under Disney couldn’t wait to mock Avatar right after the midnight box office figures were released. "The most expensive film in history = the biggest box office disaster in history!" Just this headline was shocking enough. It made people think Avatar was terrible and unpopular with audiences. "After watching Avatar and enduring a long visual bombardment in 3D, all those so-called ingenious ideas vanished with the images. Aside from some sensory stimulation, the story, themes, characters, and even some pleasing visuals all felt familiar. The hundreds of millions of dollars in investment amounted to a mix of successful commercial blockbusters with no fresh content to savor. The so-called revolution is merely a delusional fantasy." "Avatar’s creative process reflects today’s trend of comparing investment size and scale in commercial films. Its constant borrowing from others shows everything except originality." The source of this content ɪs 𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹✶𝗳𝗶𝗿𝗲✶𝗻𝗲𝘁 "In terms of imagination, the love story in Avatar is the dumbest part. As the plot progresses, it mixes typical elements like hero and beauty, bows and cannons. From meeting, misunderstanding, family opposition, to resolving conflict, the handsome guy rebelling for love follows the usual arc; justice defeats evil, bad guys die horribly, good guys laugh at the end, and love lasts forever... All of Hollywood’s clichés are here." "As for the special effects, the only slightly praised part of the film, even those scenes can’t be called revolutionary. Previous films like Jurassic Park, Star Wars, The Matrix, The Lord of the Rings, and King Kong all came earlier and were just as good." "This time Cameron merely integrated them and used 3D technology." But their opinions clearly weren’t mainstream and couldn’t stop audiences from entering theaters. As time went on, many Hollywood professionals also saw Avatar and praised it highly. "Movies have a new set of rules now. Avatar is the future!" Michael Bay "You can divide film history into ’before Avatar’ and ’after Avatar’." — Steven Soderbergh "This is a ’perceptual’ film, making your work look different. I should start studying 3D films too." — Ridley Scott "The first audience of sound films was shocked by sound; the first audience of color films was amazed by color. Avatar achieved the same thing." — George Lucas "The Renaissance of film history." — Luc Besson Praise from true professionals and word-of-mouth among audiences drove the Avatar craze. On Saturday alone, Avatar earned $26.75 million in North America. This result wasn’t bad, but also not excellent. Warner Bros. and 20th Century Fox, still holding large promotional budgets, weren’t in a hurry. They intensified their marketing efforts once again. At this key moment for boosting Avatar’s box office, they used every promotional tool available and even, with James Cameron’s permission, hyped up all five of his truck driver marriages... By Saturday, the snowstorm in the eastern U.S. worsened. Pedestrians and vehicles couldn’t move normally. Avatar was affected, and box office figures slightly dipped but the drop was only 4.6%, with daily earnings reported at $22.15 million. Adding Sunday’s $24.74 million, Avatar earned $77.02 million over its first three days in North America. Among original films, this result was definitely exceptional. But compared to the massive investment and to blockbuster adaptations like Iron Man or Transformers, Avatar’s box office seemed modest. Naturally, some media outlets stepped up again to criticize. "Avatar’s story is undoubtedly too clichéd. For a top-tier annual blockbuster, the story gave no surprises from trailer to release. It will eventually expose the 3D movie scam and shatter James Cameron’s myth!" "Avatar’s plot inevitably reminds people of the equally hollow Titanic. The story is really mediocre visually fresh, environmentally themed, that’s all. For those who’ve seen 3D films before, it’s far from shocking! There’s basically nothing worth savoring afterward! The consequence of over-focusing on technology is the emptiness of thought!" Some people even hyped that James Cameron’s Avatar was plagiarizing a Japanese work—Castle in the Sky... Moreover, Avatar’s rating on IMDb wasn’t particularly high either. Three days after its release, it quietly dropped below eight points. However, facts never shift based on certain people’s will. The box office performance of Avatar is proving that a film’s earnings have little to do with certain ratings. In the four weekdays following the opening weekend, Avatar did not experience the usual dramatic box office drop. Daily box office revenue stayed at a high level of around $15 million, and by the time the second weekend arrived, it had already raked in nearly $140 million in North America. Those with keen market instincts could already sense that Avatar’s momentum couldn’t be measured by conventional market logic. Another point: relatively speaking, IMDb scores are indeed more respected in the industry than Rotten Tomatoes freshness, but still quite limited. Anyone who knows this industry even a little would easily notice that IMDb ratings have very little connection to a movie’s box office. In fact, there’s a commonly acknowledged phenomenon regarding IMDb: logically, on average, and all else being equal, people who watch a film without much promotion tend to give high scores, but they’re few in number; those who weren’t likely to enjoy it but came due to heavy promotion and high expectations tend to give low scores, but they’re the majority. This is why independent films often have very high scores (most of the voters are fans); whereas box office miracles often have relatively lower scores (promotion brought in those who wouldn’t like it anyway). So being well-received critically and being a box office hit, high ratings and high revenue, often indeed contradict each other fundamentally. This was vividly reflected in both Titanic and Avatar. But Avatar was destined to be like Titanic, a film that wouldn’t follow conventional market logic. This was fully reflected in its second weekend box office numbers in North America. On its second weekend in North America, Avatar displayed a god-like trend—its box office dropped only 1.8% from its opening weekend, grossing $75.61 million over three days! For a commercial film, this is nothing short of a miracle! Seeing those second-weekend numbers, anyone who had doubts could fully give up, and Duke, Warner Bros., and 20th Century Fox could basically rest easy. Especially Duke he firmly believed this film was bound to surpass Titanic’s box office record, with high-priced 3D and IMAX versions being solid guarantees. In the two weekends that followed, Avatar absolutely stunned every prediction company. Its third weekend drop was only 9.4%, grossing $68.49 million; the fourth weekend drop expanded to 26%, still bringing in $50.3 million; the fifth weekend drop shrank to 14%, earning $42.78 million... Avatar never had a single weekend of explosive earnings, but its stability was frightening. During the sixth weekend, while Duke was leading the Inception crew to shoot on location in Morocco, Avatar even saw a reversal though only by 8.1%, it still took in $54.4 million, pushing its total North American box office past the $500 million mark!