DavidBrennan

No it didn't. We've already established that. Let's move on before you start your gushing over 'Alvin and the Chipmunks 2' all over again.

I think that's likely, too, but who would have thought JW would even come close to where it is? But, of course, JW has to face legitimate competition in the coming weeks (starting with a Pixar monster) whereas AVTR had the run of movie theaters from December 26 onward. But if we swapped AVTR's competition with JWs, JW would demolish AVTR.

That's Christmas weekend. That was it. You're so enamored with Sherlock Holmes and Alvin and the Chipmunks that you've been compelled to repeat this rote Christmas fare at least four times. Repeating them ad infinitum won't make them even remotely as threatening as IO. But you keep repeating, "Alvin and the Chipmunks!" til your heart's content.

They're actually trying to make a Fox tentpole with a 250m budget and a ubiquitous media campaign sound like My Big Fat Greek Wedding. This is beyond "disingenuous". These guys are either ignorant or lying.

The Park is Open.

From where? It got overwhelming love, beyond meaningless fanboy snark about its teaser trailer. Stop this re-writing history to make AVTR - a behemoth that cost more than any movie in history and had one of the most aggressive and expensive marketing campaigns in history which dwarfed JW - seem like a Little Engine That Could. It was a tentpole blockbuster that got fawning media coverage (including a whole 'Oprah' episode, a 60 Minutes segment, days of Drudge and HuffPost headlines - all BEFORE its release - and more). AVTR was a media darling monster from the very start.

You clearly do not get the point: just one of JW's competitors will make more than both of AVTRs competitors combined.

AVTR had "no nostalgia and brand recognition"? Funny, right now in the AVTR2 thread they're all talking about how the James Cameron brand is so powerful. You guys just can't keep your stories straight. Where was the "nostalgia and brand recognition" for JP3?

So now you're saying Blind Side in its 6th week = IO in its opening week (a probable top 5 animated movie of all time). sure

"low awareness"? Where were you in 2009? How about the front page of DrudgeReport for days on end, on every single movie mag, cable news network, and on and on. AVTR received double the media attention of JW. Easily.

It's an absurd claim. JW is facing what will very likely be a top 10 animated movie of all time (possibly top 5), a surefire kiddie smash, and, to cut out its legs, to formidable franchises aimed directly at the older audience that gives movies legs in the first place (Ted 2 and T5). Conversely, AVTR had utterly generic Christmas break fare. It's not even worth discussing.

AVTR was late December. In modern box office, a month prior is irrelevant. You're claiming Twilight was competition for AVTR? Cool. Then I'm counting AOU as competition for JW. So, once again, JW faces vastly stiffer competition than AVTR.

IO is competing for almost exactly the same audience as JW: families. Massive overlap, with IO just skewing a bit younger and more female.

Yeah, the brand name did wonders for that monster hit, 'Avatar: Special Edition'. I saw it opening night. On an IMAX screen. With five people in the theater. This was representative of how popular AVTR was just nine months after release.

All movies have competition. Speaking practically, AVTR didn't have much competition, and zero compared to the monsters facing JW.

sure it will

Thanks for expanding on my point: JW is competing with a single movie that will match Sherlock and Alvin 2....combined.

And look at its competition: Pixar, Minions, Ted 2, T5....these are strong, strong competitors. AVTR had virtually no competition.

What?!?!? ComicCons are overrun with AVTR cosplayers!!! Every day I hear people repeat its pithy one-liners and talk optimistically for a return of "Jake Sully" and "Neytiri"!!! Sarcasm. Haven't seen AVTR cosplay since 2010 and have not even heard the character names in years since I just typed them right there. You are correct: this movie has no retention in the public consciousness at all. It's the anti-Star Wars.

Like Lucas with AOTC and ROTS, Cameron actually had a great deal of uncredited help writing AVTR, specifically from Laeta Kalogridis. In fact, Cameron's 1995 treatment - which aligned with the movie about 85%, I'd say - was probably the bulk of his contribution. Old James Cameron wrote little of AVTR, and he has openly admitted he can't write anymore. (Remember the novelization he was going to put out by Christmas 2010? lolol) For the next AVTR movies, he's simply acting as show runner for the team he's put together. As an aside, I think this acute writer's block on Cameron's part might well be partially attributable to his vegan diet. The lack of saturated fat, dietary cholesterol, and zinc is death on hormones and mental acuity. But, ultimately, that's speculation. (Cameron could well be like many other phony Vegans - MMA fighter Jake Shields, Bill Clinton - who actually eat in plenty of eggs and fish, but I don't think so.) But overall, James Cameron's achievements are plain to see: he's an objectively great man in the sense that he's achieved tremendous things. I'll be the first one to carry on about T1 and T2, Aliens, and Abyss, and talk about the revolutionary effects, the artistry and craftsmanship, the overcoming odds, and the miraculous box office of Titanic. But none of that changes the fact that Old James Cameron is painful to watch. (Hey I just watched 51 year-old Ken Shamrock clumsily fail to sink in a rear-naked choke and then get awkwardly knocked out by....Kimbo Slice. But this doesn't diminish what the old lion achieved in the 1990's.)

This will inspire you to reconsider the final sentence:

Who would have thought that this weekend's excitement would almost match last weekend? JW, you are a beacon of glee in my summer nights!

"Amazing" is too tired. We've literally exhausted superlatives to talk about JW's performance. >TA is a done deal. AVTR is in play. Whew, I finally said it.

JW deserves to be the top story again, after all!

First, I was speaking about race, not ethnicity. Secondly, that is 100% false. Cameron was very open that Avatar was a metaphor for the white man's evils, listing all of Whitey's terrible-no good-very bad deeds specifically (lol....and then moving to the whitest country on Earth). The best line? Cameron said to a room of white reporters in France, "None of us in this room [i.e., white people] are without sin."