HEADING INTO its third weekend, “Avatar’’ had already earned more than $250 million at the US box office and more than $475 million overseas. According to the Los Angeles Times, the cost of making and marketing this magnum opus from “Titanic’’ director James Cameron was $430 million, though some have suggested $500 million. Either way, this state-of-the-art blockbuster about an evil 22d-century corporation raping a pure, utopian planet is turning a healthy profit, with DVDs, action figures, books, video games, and sequels still to come.
Predictably, most US media chatter focuses on the film’s domestic market, with barely a mention of its receipts in France ($25.8 million), Russia ($13.8 million), Germany ($12 million), and more than 90 other countries. In India, where Hollywood must compete with Bollywood, “Avatar’’ had the biggest opening weekend for a US film ever. And it is just now opening in China.
Needless to say, these facts are not lost on the film’s producers. Like the rest of Hollywood, Fox and its partners are aware of how their success – indeed, their survival – depends on dominating the global market with a particular type of film: the lavishly expensive blockbuster with eye-popping special effects. Among the 50 top-grossing films of the last 30 years, one “Mamma Mia!’’ is an old-fashioned movie with real actors – and it’s number 49.
Read more at the Boston Globe.
UPDATE:
From this morning’s Australian:
HOLLYWOOD blockbuster Avatar has surged to a box office haul of more than $US1 billion ($A1.12 billion) globally, faster than any other movie in history.
“It has made $US670 million ($A750.36 million) international, for a total of more than $US1 billion ($A1.12 billion),” box office analyst Chad Hartigan of Exhibitor Relations said.
Since the Fox-distributed film – the most expensive ever made at up to $US500 million – debuted 17 days ago, it has earned $US352 million domestically, according to weekend estimates, assuring its reputation as one of the most impressive box office performers of all time.
“It was the fastest ever to the one-billion-dollar mark,” and “Avatar is now the third biggest grosser ever”, behind Titanic and The Return of the King, the final movie in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Mr Hartigan said.
