rePost::UPDATED: Avatar Box Office Opening: $77 Million Domestic, $242 Million Worldwide, Biggest Debut Ever for an Original Film | /Film

[Update: This morning, the estimates for Avatar‘s domestic and worldwide box office take were revised. Avatar performed better on Sunday than initial estimates. The headline has been updated with the correct figures. The following article will be updated as more details come in.]
On this week’s episode of the /Filmcast: After Dark, veteran film journalist Anne Thompson stopped by to discuss Avatar and its box office prospects. While our full podcast review of Avatar won’t happen until Tuesday night, Anne made two points/predictions that I found particularly interesting: 1) She predicted a $1 billion worldwide box office take for the film when all is said and done – a remarkable achievement for any movie, but not as high as the $1.8 billion of Cameron’s Titanic, and 2) There was a high possibility that Avatar would not open as strong as other blockbusters (i.e. over $100 million domestic for opening weekend); it’s based on an entirely new property and the marketing featuring the Na’vi imagery hasn’t been as good as it could have been. Despite this, she predicted, word of mouth will carry it for weeks to come.
via UPDATED: Avatar Box Office Opening: $77 Million Domestic, $242 Million Worldwide, Biggest Debut Ever for an Original Film | /Film.

If we don’t support the dreamers, the people daring to break the mold, the people who delight us, the people who remind us the reason we fell in love with movies ; we are only stealing from ourselves that delight, that wonderment, that joy!!!

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True Fans::Offsetting Behaviour: Economics of Scalping: Trent Reznor edition

NIN gets 10% of the available seats for our own pre-sale. We won a tough (and I mean TOUGH) battle to get the best seats. We require you to sign up at our site (for free) to get tickets. We limit the amount you can buy, we print your name on the tickets and we have our own person let you in a separate entrance where we check your ID to match the ticket. We charge you a surcharge that has been less than TicketMaster‘s or Live Nation‘s in all cases so far to pay for the costs of doing this – it’s not a profit center for us. We have essentially stopped scalping by doing these things – because we want true fans to be able to get great seats and not get ripped off by these parasites.
I assure you nobody in the NIN camp supplies or supports the practice of supplying tickets to these re-sellers because it’s not something we morally feel is the right thing to do. We are leaving money on the table here but it’s not always about money.
Being completely honest, it IS something I’ve had to consider. If people are willing to pay a lot of money to sit up front AND ARE GOING TO ANYWAY thanks to the rigged system, why let that money go into the hands of the scalpers? I’m the one busting my ass up there every night. The conclusion really came down to it not feeling like the right thing to do – simple as that.
via Offsetting Behaviour: Economics of Scalping: Trent Reznor edition.

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I’ve been mulling what I like to call as the “great service coalition”. Basically it’s like a club for people who crave great service, who are willing to pay to be served great! It’s about being an extremely shy person and people serving you knowing that.  Simply put tips just don’t work most of the time.  Still thinking about how to implement this, hope I find a way.

What's Playing: Something by The Beatles

LONDON - FEBRUARY 8, 1964:  (FILE) (L-R) Paul ...
Image by Getty Images via Daylife

composed by George Harrison
performed by The Beatles
Something in the way She moves
Attracts me like no other lover
Something in the way She woos me
I don’t want to leave her now
You know I believe and how
Somewhere in the smile she knows
That I don’t need no other lover
Something in her style that shows me
I don’t want to leave her now
You know I believe and how
You’re asking me will my love grow
I don’t know, I don’t know
You stick around and it may show
I don’t know, I don’t know
Something in the way she knows
All I have to do is think of her
Something in the things she shows me
I don’t want to leave her now
You know I believe and how

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