[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!!!