Avatar :The Way of the Water OS thread

[JustLurking]

1 minute ago, Nero said:

Like what was risky about avatar 1 though? It was expensive that I can agree with but other than that...

You are making a film on entirely new technology that you are basically creating for the film, on the idea of pushing 3D to the masses, a complete question mark at the time. You are doing that with an environmental message, and a story that could've easily vibed with the audiences as anti-american at that. And for all this, you are requiring a massive budget.

 

Try not to think of it in hindsight and put yourself in the studio's shoes for a second - if this wasn't a James Cameron project, there is no way they would've ran with it, at the very least not on that budget.

[Nero]

4 minutes ago, JustLurking said:

And Cameron himself is on record on saying that the studio did not originally want A1 (not at that budget, anyway) and it took a lot of convincing and they basically just went along with it out of fear of the situation turning into a titanic 2.0 and looking like dicks for turning it down, so I wouldn't say studio thought that was some failproof project either.

 

I recently watched one Cameron video where he talks about meeting with Bob and showing him A1 and Bob agreeing showing interest in the movie. After which fox agreeing to increasing the budget Cameron wanted to make it. So I don't see a risk here 

[Issac Newton]

Territories	GBO
Korea	$5.9M
France	$5.7M
Germany	$4.6M
Mexico	$3.7M
Australia	$3.2M
Italy	$2.8M
Brazil	$2.4M
Indonesia	$1.5M
Thailand	$1.1M
Taiwan	$1.1M
Sweden	$1.0M
Hong Kong	$1.0M
Other	$16.4M
Total	$50.4M

[ZeeSoh]

4 minutes ago, JustLurking said:

I mean, the fact that IIRC an executive went over to the set himself to try to convince Cameron to cut runtime and that the film went over budget and forced Cameron to add the difference himself as studio refused to make it pretty clear that there was definitely a strong risk about titanic.

 

And Cameron himself is on record on saying that the studio did not originally want A1 (not at that budget, anyway) and it took a lot of convincing and they basically just went along with it out of fear of the situation turning into a titanic 2.0 and looking like dicks for turning it down, so I wouldn't say studio thought that was some failproof project either.

 

A2, though? Definitely not the case, and like, even with all the doom and gloom around, terrible situation around the world (shit ER+covid in china) and some markets disappointing, A2 will still quite easily make money, so it's not like this could ever be labelled as risky.

As I mentioned I can understand the risk with Titanic. Fox wanted a Cameron movie, they even fronted him 10 million to develop his concept. They were justifiably concerned about cost over runs and delays though but accepted the movie when Disney showed willingness to take the movie on. But this is normal. A movie going overbudget, or a studio being concerned about runtime and meddling happens with many many movies. But we don't run around calling most of the movies riskiest of all time for that.

[Issac Newton]

The studio estimates the first two days of international results are 167 percent ahead of the original Avatar, 72 percent ahead of Top Gun: Maverick, 52 percent ahead of Jurassic World Dominion, and 39 percent behind Spider-Man: No Way Home.

[upriser7]

A2 has opened amazingly in my home state (AP/TS) in India. It probably has best occupancy % here than any other state/country across the world. Opening day is gonna be around $2M+, more than double of previous highest (among Hollywood movies). AP/TS alone are gonna contribute to around 30% of opening day gross from India.

 

Overall, EndGame will still hold the Opening Day record in India among Hollywood movies. A2 likely will end up as 2nd best opener. It will likely cross EndGame opening day in South India but going to underperform EndGame significantly in North India

Edited December 16, 2022 by upriser7

[Borobudur]

1 minute ago, upriser7 said:

A2 has opened amazingly in my home state in India. It probably has best occupancy % here than any other state/country across the world. Opening day is gonna be around $2M, more than double of previous highest (among Hollywood movies). 

I knew it, all the Indian language trailer generate huge trailer views on YT especially hindi. 

[JustLurking]

3 minutes ago, Nero said:

I recently watched one Cameron video where he talks about meeting with Bob and showing him A1 and Bob agreeing showing interest in the movie. After which fox agreeing to increasing the budget Cameron wanted to make it. So I don't see a risk here 

As far as I remember, he basically said they didn't want it when they showed it, and he basically told them he would ship it around, will surely get interest from someone else, and if the film works they would end up looking like big dicks, exactly like with Titanic. Even then the studio panicked and begged Cameron to shorten the film, which he obviously didn't, not to mention the film once again went over budget IIRC.

 

It's not like those flop panic was born out of nothing.

[ZeeSoh]

9 minutes ago, JustLurking said:

You are making a film on entirely new technology that you are basically creating for the film, on the idea of pushing 3D to the masses, a complete question mark at the time. You are doing that with an environmental message, and a story that could've easily vibed with the audiences as anti-american at that. And for all this, you are requiring a massive budget.

 

Try not to think of it in hindsight and put yourself in the studio's shoes for a second - if this wasn't a James Cameron project, there is no way they would've ran with it, at the very least not on that budget.

What entirely new technology is that? 3d, motion capture, cgi all existed long before Avatar. The camera system used was relatively new, but its not entirely new technology, and was developed by Vince Pace as per Cameron's specification. 

[JustLurking]

6 minutes ago, ZeeSoh said:

As I mentioned I can understand the risk with Titanic. Fox wanted a Cameron movie, they even fronted him 10 million to develop his concept. They were justifiably concerned about cost over runs and delays though but accepted the movie when Disney showed willingness to take the movie on. But this is normal. A movie going overbudget, or a studio being concerned about runtime and meddling happens with many many movies. But we don't run around calling most of the movies riskiest of all time for that.

The other user's reply explains it much better than I did, but yeah, even the studio was certain Titanic would sink (heh) and then it just didn't.

 

Anyway, will say that barring some underperformances (sadly in big markets i.e. japan and china), most places are posting pretty solid numbers IMO. Positively surprised by LATAM.

[JustLurking]

Just now, ZeeSoh said:

What entirely new technology is that? 3d, motion capture, cgi all existed long before Avatar. The camera system used was relatively new, but its not entirely new technology, and was developed by Vince Pace as per Cameron's specification. 

I am referring to the camera system, yeah.  The rest of those - while all existing - had never been used to this degree. For a movie of this scale, it was banking on bringing forth a very much new experience to the audiences, one that honestly could've just as well have been rejected at the time.

[GipJo]

6 minutes ago, upriser7 said:

A2 has opened amazingly in my home state (AP/TS) in India. It probably has best occupancy % here than any other state/country across the world. Opening day is gonna be around $2M+, more than double of previous highest (among Hollywood movies). AP/TS alone are gonna contribute to around 30% of opening day gross from India.

India enters their highway road of market growth, just like China did in 2010s. I have no doubt it will be the thrid biggest market few years later.

[upriser7]

2 minutes ago, Borobudur said:

I knew it, all the Indian language trailer generate huge trailer views on YT especially hindi. 

Hindi opening was ok, nothing special. I was referring to Telugu which had amazing opening. In Andhra and Telengana which are primarily Telugu speaking states in Southern India, both English and Telugu version are having amazing occupancy..almost 65-70% occupancy even for afternoon, evening shows. In general, opening in Northern India was average whereas Southern India had an exceptional opening day, likely highest among Hollywood movies. There were some special early morning shows in Andhra & Telengana during 6AM-8AM which had very good occupancies.

[ZeeSoh]

1 minute ago, JustLurking said:

The other user's reply explains it much better than I did, but yeah, even the studio was certain Titanic would sink (heh) and then it just didn't.

 

Anyway, will say that barring some underperformances (sadly in big markets i.e. japan and china), most places are posting pretty solid numbers IMO. Positively surprised by LATAM.

lol why do you and the other guy keep mentioning Titanic only when I have already twice mentioned that I can see why Titanic can be considered risky.

[Issac Newton]

IMAX specifically has earned $9.2M globally through Thursday, including $2.63M from North America.

[Issac Newton]

IMAX Highlights

 

After 2 days, 20 South Korea IMAX screens earn $701K, 12% of the nationwide total (more than double our typical opening weekend % in the market). TWOW posted the 4^th Highest IMAX Opening Day ever in Korea on Wednesday and 3^rd Highest Thursday, achieving these rankings despite 5-6 Daily shows

 

In France, IMAX posts its 2^nd Highest IMAX Opening Day Ever on Wednesday, despite the World Cup Semi-final game at 8pm local time, which significantly impacted prime time box office results. France also posted the 2^nd highest Thursday for IMAX. The 2-day France total is $475K from 17 IMAX screens.

 

Biggest Wednesday Ever: Czech and Serbia

 

2^nd Highest Wednesday: France, Sweden, Norway, Germany

 

3^rd Highest Wednesday: Belgium

 

4^th Highest Wednesday: South Korea, Switzerland and Indonesia

 

5^th Highest Wednesday: Denmark and Italy

 

6^th Highest Wednesday: Austria, Portugal, Thailand, Malaysia

 

Biggest Thursday Ever: Singapore, Czech, and Serbia

 

2^nd Highest Thursday: France, Hong Kong, Switzerland, Romania, Vietnam, Chile

 

3^rd Highest Thursday: Germany, South Korea, South Africa, Belgium, Hungary, Italy, Argentina

 

4^th Highest Thursday: Greece

 

5^th Highest Thursday: Sweden, Norway, Malaysia

 

6^th Highest Thursday: Portugal, Slovakia

 

7^th Highest Thursday: UAE, Indonesia

[Nero]

9 minutes ago, JustLurking said:

As far as I remember, he basically said they didn't want it when they showed it, and he basically told them he would ship it around, will surely get interest from someone else, and if the film works they would end up looking like big dicks, exactly like with Titanic. Even then the studio panicked and begged Cameron to shorten the film, which he obviously didn't, not to mention the film once again went over budget IIRC.

 

It's not like those flop panic was born out of nothing.

I mean every movie carries the risk of flop. I'm not saying that it has some risks too but it's too much exaggeration to say it was riskiest of all time.

[interiorgatordecorator]

Latam is pretty much the only place where the 1st one did not no do incredible, and its now pretty much the only place that is having pretty great ow's 

what changed?

 

[Issac Newton]

Among the Imax records: 2015’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens stands as the large format exhibitor’s biggest opening stateside with $30M, repping 12% of that pic’s $247.97M opening weekend. Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar stands as the top movie with the largest share of Imax ticket sales during its opening weekend, that being 26% ($13M of a $50M opening weekend).

[Elessar]

5 minutes ago, interiorgatordecorator said:

Latam is pretty much the only place where the 1st one did not no do incredible, and its now pretty much the only place that is having pretty great ow's 

what changed?

 

 

"Pretty great OW"? It is having pretty great OW pretty much everywhere, except maybe Japan. And China but that is due to COVID.

Edited December 16, 2022 by Elessar