Avatar: The Way of Water | 16 DEC 2022 | Don't worry guys, critics like it

[interiorgatordecorator]

 

11 minutes ago, IronJimbo said:

it's apparently new footage Avatar (2009) footage near the end of the film

 

they didnt even bother to re-release the special edition to avoid confusing the GA, whats the point of including new footage very few of the sequels audience will ever see?

Edited September 20, 2022 by interiorgatordecorator

[NCsoft]

6 minutes ago, interiorgatordecorator said:

 

 

they didnt even bother to re-release the special edition to avoid confusing the GA, whats the point of including new footage very few of the sequels audience will ever see?

Some of the decisions surrounding this re-release have indeed been quite puzzling...

This would have been a good chance to add a little footage of AWOW or another trailer, preferably both, and then they can announce that to motivate people to go see the re-release.

 

Edited September 20, 2022 by NCsoft

[Stewart]

I've been checking daily the sales at Crawley Cineworld's IMAX for 7:30 Friday and Saturday (i.e. primetime).

 

Saturday is looking somewhat empty right now, only ~20 seats sold. Friday though has been steadily increasing. No initial rush, no slowdown, no speed up. About ~70 tickets sold for that so far. 

 

The big big difference I have noticed compared to other films I've booked in IMAX opening weekend: the number of people per booking. Generally, the majority (like >90%) of tickets sold you can see are in bunches of 2 or 3. Very rare to get more than that, but what I'm seeing from Avatar is about 50% of tickets coming from groups of 4, 5 or 6. 

 

I don't have an explanation for that as of now, so I won't speculate. But it means more tickets are being sold in an average booking. 

 

I haven't been keeping strict monitoring or seat counts, but I will continue to look daily. 

[Alexdube]

6 minutes ago, interiorgatordecorator said:

 

 

they didnt even bother to re-release the special edition to avoid confusing the GA, whats the point of including new footage very few of the sequels audience will ever see?

 

Well we know for sure they added something to the original, that's not speculative, that's what Cameron said himself. Now is there also something else added like a trailer or a scene from A2? I don't know 

[Stewart]

2 minutes ago, Stewart said:

I've been checking daily the sales at Crawley Cineworld's IMAX for 7:30 Friday and Saturday (i.e. primetime).

 

Saturday is looking somewhat empty right now, only ~20 seats sold. Friday though has been steadily increasing. No initial rush, no slowdown, no speed up. About ~70 tickets sold for that so far. 

 

The big big difference I have noticed compared to other films I've booked in IMAX opening weekend: the number of people per booking. Generally, the majority (like >90%) of tickets sold you can see are in bunches of 2 or 3. Very rare to get more than that, but what I'm seeing from Avatar is about 50% of tickets coming from groups of 4, 5 or 6. 

 

I don't have an explanation for that as of now, so I won't speculate. But it means more tickets are being sold in an average booking. 

 

I haven't been keeping strict monitoring or seat counts, but I will continue to look daily. 

Oh, and the "good" news, I suppose, is that the single 2D showing on Friday and Saturday is nearly empty

 

This is showing that the people booking now are happy enough to watch in 3D. 

[Stewart]

1 minute ago, Alexdube said:

 

Well we know for sure they added something to the original, that's not speculative, that's what Cameron said himself. Now is there also something else added like a trailer or a scene from A2? I don't know 

You know what'd be amazing, a time jump at the end of the Avatar and the first two minutes of A2!

[SnokesLegs]

3 hours ago, interiorgatordecorator said:

 

 

theres definitively something added to the re-release, original movie is 161m 35s, 2d version of the re-release gets 2 extra min while the 3d one gets 4? I think thats what can explain the different runtimes

 

I assume the trailer is 2 minutes long and the 3d exclusive footage is a tech showcase james cameron talk?

 

wonder if theyll expand it past the 2 weeks, people that might not care about the re-release might care if they hear about the trailer, which seems like its being kept as a surprise

The extra 2 minutes on one of them is probably just the IMAX version which has the usual IMAX countdown intro and post credits “IMAX Quality Assurance” card attached (which tends to stay onscreen for about 60 seconds). The actual footage will be the same across all versions.

[interiorgatordecorator]

was ready to call 3 billion dead because of how weird the domestic release was, but  checking out theaters in my country, its actually doing kinda great?

 

movies come out thursdays where im from; 2d showings arent doint too hot,  but most of thursdayss 3d showings during normal hours are nearly 1/3rd full, and my country still relies a lot on walkups so I can imagine some showtimes getting real full

Edited September 20, 2022 by interiorgatordecorator

[NCsoft]

10 minutes ago, interiorgatordecorator said:

was ready to call 3 billion dead because of how weird the domestic release was, but  checking out theaters in my country, its actually doing kinda great?

Heard that presales in Korea is good, and apparently doing pretty well in India too.

 

But I think 3B would require more promotion, bigger theater count domestically, more than 2 weeks run, and ideally another re-release in China. So under those ideal scenario, 3B would have been possible for sure I think. 

[TheDude391]

Looks like IMAX won't be presenting either film in high frame rate.

 

Curious how it is in other countries but I'm checking IMAX listings in Canada...no HFR. Even the dual laser/4k/1.43 projectors aren't doing it. ONLY some of the newer Dolby theatres have HFR listed on the website.

[JustLurking]

3 hours ago, interiorgatordecorator said:

was ready to call 3 billion dead because of how weird the domestic release was, but  checking out theaters in my country, its actually doing kinda great?

 

movies come out thursdays where im from; 2d showings arent doint too hot,  but most of thursdayss 3d showings during normal hours are nearly 1/3rd full, and my country still relies a lot on walkups so I can imagine some showtimes getting real full

I haven't done tracking or anything, but it's selling well and absolutely crushing Don't Worry Darling at the theater near me (Italy here).

 

Also I would add that it has both 3D and 2D showings and the 3D showings are selling much better. So if this is supposed to be a test run of sorts for whether people are still willing to go 3D for Avatar, I'd say the result is positive.

Edited September 21, 2022 by JustLurking

[SchumacherFTW]

9 hours ago, Stewart said:

Oh, and the "good" news, I suppose, is that the single 2D showing on Friday and Saturday is nearly empty

 

This is showing that the people booking now are happy enough to watch in 3D. 

That single 2D show IS during work hours on Friday though. Surprised the standard screen is the biggest non IMAX in the place, feel like that may bite them this weekend. 

[IronJimbo]

2 days until I see Avatar in cinema for the first time in 13 years and a half years!

 

Also 3 billies is a long shot but it's on the table still

[adaros]

1 hour ago, IronJimbo said:

2 days until I see Avatar in cinema for the first time in 13 years and a half years!

 

Also 3 billies is a long shot but it's on the table still

I'm big Avatar fan but due to screens limited short 2 week release I don't expect it to make even $70m globally.

[IronJimbo]

3 minutes ago, adaros said:

I'm big Avatar fan but due to screens limited short 2 week release I don't expect it to make even $70m globally.

 

An extention is possible which is why I say it's on the table still. I am totally expecting over $70m WW in those 2 weeks though, I'm thinking $90m in the first two weeks. People overseas love Avatar more than they do in America

[hw64]

Yep, 2-week extension and very good performances in places like India, South Korea, Brazil and Mexico will be necessary for $3b, and even then it's an outside chance (although still entirely possible).

 

Still, I think the movie is being underpredicted based on presales, domestically in particular. Not only are the presales for Friday nowhere near as mediocre as has been portrayed, but I'm also seeing signs of backloading in that presales for Saturday and Sunday are not too far off from those on Friday, which is in stark contrast to something like Don't Worry Darling.

 

I'm thinking a $10m+ weekend at least, possibly approaching $15m, and I've also heard some very good signs about presales in certain overseas markets, so a bit of an overseas explosion wouldn't surprise me at all.

Edited September 21, 2022 by hw64

[SchumacherFTW]

I don't really care about the gross, I'm just looking forward to seeing it in IMAX again at the weekend. I remember watching it in the same screen back in 2010, but it was just a really big standard screen in those days 😅

[IronJimbo]

1 minute ago, SchumacherFTW said:

I don't really care about the gross, I'm just looking forward to seeing it in IMAX again at the weekend. I remember watching it in the same screen back in 2010, but it was just a really big standard screen in those days 😅

I care about both! I'm really looking forward to seeing it on a better screen than in 2009 and a 100x better screen than my home tv.

But the box office is important if you care about the Avatar franchise's success as a whole.

 

 

6 minutes ago, hw64 said:

Yep, 2-week extension and very good performances in places like India, South Korea, Brazil and Mexico will be necessary for $3b, and even then it's an outside chance (although still entirely possible).

 

Still, I think the movie is being underpredicted based on presales, domestically in particular. Not only are the presales for Friday nowhere near as mediocre as has been portrayed, but I'm also seeing signs of backloading in that presales for Saturday and Sunday are not too far off from those on Friday, which is in stark contrast to something like Don't Worry Darling.

 

I'm thinking a $10m+ weekend at least, possibly approaching $15m, and I've also heard some very good signs about presales in certain overseas markets, so a bit of an overseas explosion wouldn't surprise me at all.

 

People using none-Avatar comps on Avatar is never a good idea, I expect it to make more than whatever people are expecting.

 

it's gonna be tough but $3B is just an artibuary number. In terms of this re-release whats important for the Avatar franchise is just that it performns incredible well based on the conditions it's given. Setting A2 up to make crazy crazy amounts, ensuring Avatar mania for the next decade (MY COMFORT ZONE)

[Deuce66]

 

Cameron talks about the remaster of Avatar and had this to say about The Way of Water.

James Cameron on How Avatar's 4K HDR Remaster Improves the 3D Experience - IGN 

Within the Avatar universe, The Way of Water takes place quite a while after the events of the first film. “We follow [Jake and Neytiri] forward in time, 15 years to where they have a family of pre-teens and teenagers. More of a family dynamic. It’s not a Hallmark, Disney family dynamic. It’s a very dysfunctional family dynamic, but ultimately there’s a core there that they all draw their strength from. I think that’s the thing that’s fundamentally different from the first one.”

The last two sequels Cameron made were Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Aliens, two undeniable classics that set an impossibly high bar for their respective franchises. What should we expect from the follow-up to Avatar? 

“I guarantee you, you won’t be able to predict it,” Cameron assured us. “What people hate the most is to go and see a movie and say ‘oh… predictable.’ This is not predictable, I don’t think. I defy anybody to predict where this story goes.”

 

 

 

[Deep Wang]

45 minutes ago, Deuce66 said:

 

“I guarantee you, you won’t be able to predict it,” Cameron assured us. “What people hate the most is to go and see a movie and say ‘oh… predictable.’ This is not predictable, I don’t think. I defy anybody to predict where this story goes.”

 

 

 

this sounds like a challenge!