"[215], After the film's release and unusually strong box office performance over its first two weeks, it was debated as the one film capable of surpassing Titanic's worldwide gross, and its continued strength perplexed box office analysts. [257] Various reviews have compared Avatar to the films FernGully: The Last Rainforest,[258][259] Pocahontas[260] and The Last Samurai. [34] Several cast members are expected to return, including Worthington, Saldana, Lang, and Weaver.[35][36]. In her dream, she saw a blue-skinned woman 12 feet (4 m) tall, which he thought was "kind of a cool image". Barry Edwards USMC), creator: Na'vi language (as Paul Frommer Ph. [322], On November 14, 2018, Cameron announced filming on Avatar 2 and 3 with the principal performance capture cast had been completed. Avatar won the 82nd Academy Awards for Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, and Best Visual Effects, and was nominated for a total of nine, including Best Picture and Best Director. Norm Spellman, Jake's avatar is attacked by a thanator and flees into the forest, where he is rescued by Neytiri, a female Na'vi. [120], Composer James Horner scored the film, his third collaboration with Cameron after Aliens and Titanic. [296], Cameron initially stated that Avatar would be released in 3D around November 2010, but the studio issued a correction: "3-D is in the conceptual stage and Avatar will not be out on 3D Blu-ray in November. The site's consensus reads, "It might be more impressive on a technical level than as a piece of storytelling, but Avatar reaffirms James Cameron's singular gift for imaginative, absorbing filmmaking. He stated the "Earth opening" is an additional 4​1⁄2 minutes of scenes that were in the film for much of its production but were ultimately cut before the film's theatrical release. I had to do a double take. [17] Work on the language of the film's extraterrestrial beings began in 2005, and Cameron began developing the screenplay and fictional universe in early 2006. [105] [148], In a 2009 interview, Cameron said that he planned to write a novel version of Avatar after the film was released. ", "Box Office Report: 'Avatar' is No. [126], The first photo of the film was released on August 14, 2009,[127] and Empire released exclusive images from the film in its October issue. Cameron stated that the nine minutes of added scenes cost more than $1 million a minute to produce and finish. [279] The film has received numerous other major awards, nominations and honors. [215], Box office analysts, on the other hand, estimated that the film would be a box office success. [90] In January 2007, Fox had announced that 3-D filming for Avatar would be done at 24 frames per second despite Cameron's strong opinion that a 3-D film requires higher frame rate to make strobing less noticeable. [98] Cameron described the system as a "form of pure creation where if you want to move a tree or a mountain or the sky or change the time of day, you have complete control over the elements". Following the film's success, Cameron signed with 20th Century Fox to produce four sequels: Avatar 2 and Avatar 3 have completed principal filming, and are scheduled to be released on December 16, 2022, and December 20, 2024, respectively; subsequent sequels are scheduled to be released on December 18, 2026, and December 22, 2028. Avatar Movie Release Date - Check out complete Avatar movie cast, review and crew list. With the exceptions of Jake, Norm and a select few others, all humans are expelled from Pandora and sent back to Earth. [304] The Blu-ray 3D version was finally released on October 16, 2012. [194] By the end of its first theatrical release Avatar had grossed $749,766,139 in the U.S. and Canada, and $1,999,298,189 in other territories, for a worldwide total of $2,749,064,328. [71], For the love story between characters Jake and Neytiri, Cameron applied a star-crossed love theme, and acknowledged its similarity to the pairing of Jack and Rose from his film Titanic. [244] Ross Douthat of The New York Times opined that the film is "Cameron's long apologia for pantheism [...] Hollywood's religion of choice for a generation now",[245] while Saritha Prabhu of The Tennessean called the film a "misportrayal of pantheism and Eastern spirituality in general",[246] and Maxim Osipov of The Hindustan Times, on the contrary, commended the film's message for its overall consistency with the teachings of Hinduism in the Bhagavad Gita. The story would be of an entire world complete with an ecosystem of phantasmagorical plants and creatures, and native people with a rich culture and language. [162] However, a 3D 2.39:1 extract was approved for use with constant-image-height screens (i.e. According to Cameron, "It's like a big, powerful game engine. Cameron said his inspiration was "every single science fiction book I read as a kid" and that he was particularly striving to update the style of Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter series and the deep jungles of Pandora were visualized from Disney's 37th animated film, Tarzan. Cameron mentioned, "you can sit down, and in a continuous screening of the film, watch it with the Earth opening". [95] [91] According to Cameron, the film is composed of 60% computer-generated elements and 40% live action, as well as traditional miniatures. Cameron said the two actors "had a great chemistry" during filming. [18][19] Avatar was officially budgeted at $237 million. The previous IMAX record opening was Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which opened in 161 IMAX theaters in the US, and about 70 international. James Cameron announced at the Comic-Con Avatar Panel that August 21 will be 'Avatar Day'. [134] While escorting the avatars of Grace and fellow scientist Dr. [227], According to Variety, films in 3D accumulated $1.3 billion in 2009, "a threefold increase over 2008 and more than 10% of the total 2009 box-office gross". The director notes the similarities between Sully and Neytiri, and Jack and Rose", "James Cameron Fought the Studio to Keep His Aliens Weird in "Avatar, James Cameron en Chine pour faire la publicité de son film « Avatar Â», "Avatar's Designers Speak: Floating Mountains, AMP Suits And The Dragon", "Zhangjiajie, China: Get hyped for 'Avatar 2' by visiting the place that inspired the film", "War on Terror backdrop to James Cameron's Avatar", "How James Cameron's Innovative New 3D Tech Created, "Cameron sets live-action, CG epic for 2009", "$200m Avatar starts filming in Wellington", "James Cameron's Jungle Expedition For 'Avatar' Stars", "Computers Join Actors in Hybrids On Screen", "Do the 'Avatar' actors deserve recognition? ... ‘Avatar’ Sequel: First Photos of New Cast Members Unveiled. [192] It remained at number one at the domestic box office for seven consecutive weeks â€“ the most consecutive No. [293] As of July 18, 2012, DVD sales (not including Blu-ray) totaled over 10.5 million units sold with $190,806,055 in revenue. Jake finds the refugees at the sacred Tree of Souls and pleads with Mo'at to heal Grace. [168], International markets generating opening weekend tallies of at least $10 million were for Russia ($19.7 million), France ($17.4 million), the UK ($13.8 million), Germany ($13.3 million), South Korea ($11.7 million), Australia ($11.5 million), and Spain ($11.0 million). Sam Worthington also plays Jake's deceased twin brother, Tommy. [233] [183] In its fourth weekend, Avatar continued to lead the box office domestically, setting a new all-time fourth-weekend record of $50,306,217,[184] and becoming the highest-grossing 2009 release in the United States. Dr. Grace Augustine, head of the Avatar Program, considers Sully an inadequate replacement but accepts his assignment as a bodyguard. After Jake is initiated into the tribe, he and Neytiri choose each other as mates. Experts Weigh In. [152] [20][21][22] A studio spokesperson said that the budget was "$237 million, with $150 million for promotion, end of story. [224] He changed his prediction by mid-January. Mo'at frees Jake and Grace, but they are detached from their avatars and imprisoned by Quaritch's forces. "[81] According to production designer Dylan Cole, the fictional floating rocks were inspired by Huangshan (also known as Yellow Mountain), Guilin, Zhangjiajie, among others around the world.