Is the AVATAR Footage Playing to Half Empty Theaters? - Page 2

I applied, out of curiosity for all the London screenings. All were fully booked.

I don't know if i'd have gone though - it'd have cost me more to get there than to just see it when it was released.

I couldn't find a single person interested enough to watch this with me. I guess it is understandable since the marketing campaign hasn't really ignited yet.

The trademark of a true Sam Worthington character!

like chewers and watchmen....

I agree, but for Devin it is important to bomb, because he does not like it, even he hasn`t seen it - what does that say about "film critic" ?. so it must fail. and about cameron, I don`t know if us Finns are smarter than you, but teens here do know who he is & what he has done in the past, before titanic ( "only" films like aliens, terminators )...i don`t say that automatically makes avatar good - it being cameron film.

Saw it in London and was fully packed. There was abit of buzz after the preview about the film and was talking to a few people who hadn't seen the trailer but were impressed by the 3D. There was a few press doing interviews after the preview to get people's reaction and were mostly positive.

If they are planning on showing it in 3D, are there many theaters capable of having 3D projections? I know that Cameron said that the reason why he pushed back the release date was to allow more theaters to install 3D projectors..

No offense, but I care. This is a movie website and budget and box office have some effect on what happens with movies and directors and such like so it's a perfectly appropriate question.

I am going to be honest. For the months leading up to D9, I was drooling to see it and both me and my wife were there opening weekend.

My wife doesn't even know what the hell avatar is.

That should put it in perspective.

I cant tell the difference between Sam Worthington and 'Helo' from Battlestar Galactica. They're the same person, I swear.

Offense taken only b/c of the profanity. No need.

I care because looking at the footage so far he hasn't done anything original or all that interesting, nevermind the weak CGI. I think he's overrated and doesn't accomplish anything with his now bloated budgets that couldn't be accomplished at a fraction of the cost. T2 and Aliens are the only flicks you need to know from his filmography anyway.

People need to fuck off with this right now. You can't keep claiming that people who are bitching haven't seen the footage or that it needs to be seen in movement or it needs to be seen in 3D*. I've seen the footage. It's not that great. And it sure as hell isn't anything close to The Fountain in story, scope or interesting effects.

*I can't see it in 3D due to my eyes so selling it based on the 3D is a waste for me and a large number of the population.

Crap, crap and more crap. If you don't buy into the character design of the main characters you aren't going to buy in to the movie. Design is doubly important in sci-fi/fantasy movies.

yes, but turning Avatar nothing but box office thing is stupid, if some one would have done that to Watchmen he would have been banned. It`s part of the deal but at the end, it`s the movie that counts...

and, Devin when you write "...and the reality is that there's a whole generation of young moviegoers for whom James Cameron's name means nothing." I`m sure you have some kind of data to back that up ? that is part of good journalims, no ?!

and : I`m not a big Cameron fan, I like Abyss and Aliens, Terminators not so much, but I tend to give a movie a chance...

16 year olds were four when Titanic came out. Do you have any data to back up any reason why they would know who James Cameron is?

Please, I shouldn`t know Hitchcock because I was 6 when his last came out...I do not compare them....do they remove directors names from the blu-rays & dvds in US ?

Edit : but, I do not know how things are in USA, if teens ARE that ignorant there as you let me believe - fine. I have seen what they grow up to be....

Are you 16 now? I have grown co-workers who can't tell you who directed their favorite movies.

Am I 16 ? Hitchcock`s Family Plot came out -76, you do the math !? most unfortunate, I have some too, but MOST of them do, and kids do too, and when they see "cool" movie like aliens, they look up who has done it, and want see more of his work.

Well I am as psyced as anyone for avatar. I have said its going to change the entire world and be a turning point in human history...

That said, I did not go to the preview. I am a busy person, and gas is expensive as are taxis (I am without a car right now). Could this perhaps have more to do with it than anything? I am planning to take a train to NYC for Avatar, but driving an hour out of my way to see 16 minutes of footage that may or may not spoil some of the magic when the actual avatar day happens? No thanks.

I am not saying there may not have been an enthusiasm gap for this preview, but perhaps it has more to do with lack of enthusiasm for the preview than for the actual film.

Thoughts?

I hiked up to the Barrett Commons AMC 24 FauxMAX, North of Atlanta, and caught the 7pm show. They were rigorously checking names, and since I hadn't printed the email, they had to look me up on the list while I attempted to show it to them on my phone. I was the last one admitted-- I think I arrived a minute or two before showtime.

Looked like the house was maybe halfway full. I located Russ and crew, and took a nice central seat about halfway up. The goggles were freakin' huge. Bigger and different from any 3D glasses I'd worn before. I guess they offer a wider range of 3Dness, in theory?

AMC gave a little pitch first-- we all had been given coupons that would get us into any show at that theater for matinee price, plus free popcorn w/ drink purchase. Unfortunately, they weren't showing BASTERDS, so their marketing plan failed on us.

I've gotta say, hassle that it was to get there, the AMC IMAX intro about PREPARING ADVANCED SOUND SYSTEM-- SYNCHRONIZING 3D VISUAL PRESENTATION, etc, was pretty damn awesome and hilarious. It was like a modern version of the "starting up the Batmobile" checklist. Loved it.

So, the footage-- I enjoyed it! I'm a bit of a sucker for a space marine scenario like we saw at the start, so that was cool. Jake's hospital rebellion scene annoyed me a bit, because, come on, dude, do what the doctor says. The giant creature chase was nicely tense and the action looked good to me. Some very cool stuff during the flight scene, too. I'm sold on seeing it as a fun action/fantasy movie, though I don't think it's going to change the world, by any means.

There were very few vocal reactions from our crowd that I could hear while it played. Maybe a few "Whoa!"s and whatnot. Not much laughter. I chuckled a time or two. Applause at the end, I guess, and mixed opinions going out the door, I would say.

I don't see any way that this movie will pull in older parental types that aren't big sci-fi/fantasy fans already-- even if it IS from the director of The Titanic.

Maybe 4/5 stars on the promotional material scale?
I had not seen the trailer or other footage before last night.

Usually I get cheapo orange glasses that are covered in smudges when I see these 3D movies.



Maybe one day they'll give me a pair of these super advanced monstrosities.

I think there are 8 screens that can show 3D-movies here in Sweden, so that appeal will be lost to the vast majority of the audience.

Interesting write up in today's New York Times about the IMAX footage and the marketing of Avatar.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/22/mo...?_r=1&ref=arts

The piece makes a good point: aside from the 3D and IMAX theaters, the studio needs for the 2D presentation to be impressive if the movie is to make any kind of a profit.

Further coverage of the actual footage on a NY Times blog:
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/20...d-we-just-see/

Then there's this. I live in Syracuse... a small city but a real city with a real IMAX. I happen to work two blocks from that IMAX. Had the footage been shown there I definitely would have taken the walk over, despite how excited I haven't been for the film. But this type of strategy is entirely designed to exclude people to build anticipation and so I'm left with nothing but a nice looking, but frankly goofy teaser trailer.

I'll quote my friend who saw nothing but the trailer. She was succinct, but her opinion is still valid.

I went to the Charlotte one and it was packed, but when I was discussing it with friends on the ride home, I think we hit on what the big challenge for this film is gonna be: how many people are going to see this in 3-D? If given the choice between 2 and 3-D, are they going to pick the cheap one or the "correct" one? It's been odd to hear people defend the teaser by saying, "Oh, but you HAVE to see it in 3-D!" Well, what about the people who don't have 3-D theaters nearby who will have to watch this in 2-D? Or people who simply decide to see it in 2-D to avoid paying extra for a 3-D showing? Or people who don't have an IMAX within driving distance? The technology and CGI and yada yada is all that I've heard about in regard to this movie, but if that is the only draw for this film and the story doesn't hold up in 2-D, this movie is in some trouble.

Seattle Boeing IMAX theater. 6:45 pm. Somewhere between a quarter and a third full. Response was positive. A few were enthusiastic.

I really liked what I saw. Devin was pretty dead on with his first impressions. I'm fine with the Na'vi designs in motion. The action footage was exciting. It's the live-action humans that ended up looking really alien in the end. They stick out as figures composited into a CG world. Also, the live-action footage at the beginning tended to strobe whenever characters/objects moved across the screen. I remember reading that Cameron was trying to figure out a way to diminish that, but I'm not sure how successful he was.

As soon as the 16 minutes were done, I really wanted to see the movie right then and there. Looks like fun.

Devin (and Phil) is talking about regular people. Not filmgeeks like us and our friends. Of course you know who James Cameron is, you're on the CHUD message boards. But normals (as I'll call them) don't end up seeing many movies that came out before they were born, except for perennials like WIZARD OF OZ and DUMBO and such. And I certainly don't believe they rush home to figure out who directed movies for trailers they saw. I still routinely bump into people under 30 who shockingly have no idea what the IMDb is.

Maybe Devin is hating on AVATAR. I don't know the secrets of his craggy heart. But he's totally right in this context. If AVATAR is going to be a phenomenon, regular kids who hang out at the mall all day need to see it in droves. And, hey, maybe they will. But it won't be because James "TRUE LIES" Cameron made it. I bet you there are tons of kids out there who saw TERMINATOR SALVATION and still haven't seen the original TERMINATOR. That's just how 'normals' roll.

Ominous signs, indeed.

The press is not being favorable to this at all. A lot of the news sources are putting a negative spin on it. I guess it doesn't help when they promote it as 'A film ten years in the making.'

I'm not so sure the mall kid crowd is a problem. They're going to a movie anyways, and by that point they've been bombarded by TV spots and trailers before the films they saw last weekend... The big battle footage from the end of the film should be enough.

Again, who is going to take the time to drive to the mall or even farther out of someones way to spend less than half an episode of the daily show in a movie theater? I am not suprised few came.

The footage is under ten minutes?

the footage is 16 minutes i've heard, and the dailyshow is typically 30 to 30.5 minutes long

Don't think you should be counting commercials.

+1

as a Cameron fan my self, I didn't see the point in getting off of work and running down to the IMAX to watch a PREVIEW. I can't imagine any movie preview selling out. Would anyone go to a Dark Knight 3 preview or a Hobbit preview(enough to sell out around the US), I doubt it.

Although, to be fair, the term "sell out" is not exactly appropriate when the thing is free. You can't do this in every city, but I guarantee if you opened up the doors to an IMAX in New York and said "Free 15 minute preview of <just about anything>" you could fill the place.

Using just a plot outline, The Fountain is about a medical researcher who's searching for a cure for cancer, while his wife -what irony!- is dying from the disease.

Doesn't sound very original. Doesn't really do the movie justice.

I think it's safe to say that there would be an instant tent city erected for an overnight wait just to see 30 seconds of the third TWILIGHT movie though.

This is true. There's entire groups of people who pay to drive out to where they think Twilight is shooting(They often come to us for some reason), they studio has to put up big screens to keep the cameras at bay, the stories I've heard from the New Moon crew are absolutely absurd and sometimes scary. There are some FAN ass fans out there for anything.

I don't know, all this negativity reminds me of similar pronouncements about Cameron's eminent demise right before Titanic (or is it now "Teh Titanic"?) came out.

One thing he's demonstrated since Terminator: Cameron knows how to create a product that puts masses of asses in seats.

... and is fearless."

Worst bit of the footage for me. One, he'd looked scared shitless, not fearless. Two, the speed with which she changes from aggro, pissed-off jungle warrior to sightly demure, cute princess to scolding mom isn't handled well, it comes across as a childish piece of writing. And that's understandable if it's aimed squarely at kids, which Cameron has pretty much admitted, but it's going to lose me very quickly if there's too much cliched character cuteness like that and it's already risky enough that Worthington's character is the stereotypical endearing buffoon. It's out of context right now, sure, but as it stands in the preview it struck me as a crappy moment.

But on the plus side it was the only part of the fifteen minutes I really disliked, the rest of it, even though it's not bigtime original, looks pretty fun.

And I haven't read anything on what the full story is so this could be wide of the mark but from what I've seen so far it looks like a Disney version of Dances With Wolves in space.

Jeez. Some people around here go from zero to "fuck you!" at the drop of a pin.

The context of the movie means everything to the success of the designs. Say you knew that the aliens of DISTRICT 9 were meant to be sympathetic. You see the disgusting, insectoid creatures in the trailer and declare that the filmmakers are crazy... how can they expect the audience to ever accept such repulsive looking characters? Then you walk into the theater and understand that their aesthetics are intentional. You're supposed to be turned off... but the film still gets you to feel for them eventually. You only get that by seeing the entire picture.

It may be that AVATAR's character designs are misguided. We have no way of knowing. There could be reasons why they look the way they do and that can change your reaction to them.

I assumed that the two characters had already met by that point and had some form of relationship already being established. Otherwise yeah, her flipflopping would be strange or just plain bad writing.

Does anyone remember what the buzz on Titanic was four months out? I remember it being terrible and that Cameron was going to have to go to director jail for spending so much money. Am I remembering wrong? I was 17 at the time.

From what I remember, the press was brutal. There was a piece in Time or Newsweek, prior to release, comparing it to Waterworld.

At the end of the day, you never how audiences will react to a film.

A big hurdle for Avatar though, that Beowulf never surmounted, was asking the audience to accept the mo cap protagonists as equivalent to human actors. That's quite a hurdle.

I had tickets but missed out of the screening due to me just forgetting the fucking time. So I called Opry Mills Imax to see if it was even possible catching the 6:45 instead of the 6:00 and the manager there or whoever I got on the phone with sounded kinda pissed about the situation going on there, claiming the people running the show were being very militaristic about it all. "They can do what they want though, they rented the room." So I pretty much didn't even bother to try to see if I could walk in and hand them my email for the later showing.

I think the fault of the low attendance was in the lack of awareness about the movie itself. How can they expect people to show up for a free screening when no one even knows about the movie? They should have released the teaser and wait for at least a month. Get some TV time out of it and get some pictures online and in magazines, etc. Build up at least some awareness of it. Then do the Avatar Day with a good week's worth of TV promos. By that time, people are aware of the movie and have seen enough to get curious about it.

But Beowulf had human characters, while this has a bunch of Abe Sapiens running around. There's no uncanny valley issue when you're looking at an alien. A bunch of dead-eyed humans, on the other hand...

I wasn't planning on going cause I had to work late that night. And as far as it playing at the Navy Pier here in Chicago....it's just such a pain in the ass to get to that place (parking is terrible and rush hour in downtown Chicago is brutal). So basically, even if I had the time to go I wouldn't have...it's just waaaaaay too much trouble to go through just to see 15 minutes of a movie. And it wouldn't have ended up being free 'cause parking is like a minimum $15-20.

What FOX really should've done is pumped the shit out of some quickie IMAX 3D movie and made it specifically to attach 16 minutes of Avatar to the front of. It would've revolutionized movie marketing! Making one movie specifically to promote another completely unrelated one!

... I guess Wing Commander was already kinda that, huh?

Absolutely none of this is boding well for this movies success. From fairly lackluster buzz coming from ComicCon, a really underwhelming trailer (for me anyway) and now this...I fear for Camerons career after this thing comes out.

He's got half a dozen hits before this. Including one of the biggest blockbusters of all time.

I think he can survive one flop.