Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Can't wait to see Star Wars take down Avatar for the domestic box office title. I don't like Avatar, so I'll be happy to see a film I like at the top. I don't think it can pass Avatar worldwide, though. Even if it sells the same amount of tickets, foreign exchange rates would kill its chances.

It's also really bad that I actually have money when a Star Wars film is out. I have now spent way too much on Star Wars merchandise. I'm a little worried that I just spent too much. Going to have to do my Jan/Feb budget tonight. Keeping some of the new goodies inside the boxes for now, in case I have to return/resell them.

Like Avatar being the highest-grossing film in the first place.

It's because the 3D on the big screen was amazing. *My mom* went to see it in 3D. Which if you knew my mother would absolutely blow your mind. The only reason I saw it was to check out the 3D work. And so Hollywood jumped on this, converting all the big blockbusters to 3D. Completely missing the point that what made the effects in Avatar so great was that it was SHOT in 3D. But no one really does this because it is freaking expensive.

Otherwise, as Star Wars itself proves, a story about the good guys fighting EVIL is going to be a box office draw. That's all I can figure, because I thought the film was boring. I can't even remember any of the characters' names. I don't even remember what the blue aliens were called.

I mean, I wouldn't even see the point of watching it at home. If there is ever a theatrical 3D re-release, then I'd say maybe you should go check it out.

Hell this very movie is the first Star Wars to be released in its first run in 3D (and it's only antecedents in 3D are post-Avatar.)

What interests me is Avatar seems to have had less impact in terms of mo-cap acting careers. Andy Serkis has essentially made this his specialty as an actor since Lord of the Rings and the Apes films he's starred in have been budding still more actors in the craft (Tony Kebbel is going right from playing Dawn of the Planet of the Apes's villain to playing one of the leads in Warcraft) but so far as I know none of Avatar's mo-cap actors have been doing similar work since - certainly not the main stars - Zoe Saldana has done big budget sci-fi movies since, to be sure, but the roles have required makeup at most.

Anyway I like Avatar mostly because it's the movie I would have written when I was ten (down to the environmentalism) and the bizarre world building is like a more blockbuster friendly equivalent to the surreal dreamscapes of a Rene Laloux film - so certainly like an animated film, but not in the sense I see that as that bad a thing. I'll probably see the sequels.

The best parts of Avatar:

You're also not that good of a director, says someone who loves the film Rush.

That's probably true. I think it's less that people dislike it and more that it was an original film that didn't have a lot of supplementary material.

In the ten years between Revenge of the Sith and The Force Awakens, Star Wars had two animated series, two theatrical releases - a pilot screened as a movie from the first animated series, a 3D re-release of The Phantom Menace - multiple continuing comics and novels, entire episodes of various animated shows devoted to parodying it (from Phineas and Ferb to Family Guy) and, oh yeah, one of the most expensive videogames ever made, Star Wars: The Old Republic.

All that and the ongoing Lego franchise (with both toys and an ever expanding roster of video games and cartoons) plus who knows what else. Now you may have engaged with absolutely none of these products, but Star Wars has maintained a media presence, as it were, and has maintained one with varying degrees of intensity since 1977.

The same can be said of a lot of the other big 'franchise' titles - the comic book empires of DC and Marvel, Star Trek (whose 'prime universe' novels have their own continuity and whose MMO chugs along dutifully.)

Avatar has absolutely nothing that comes close. I went and checked the fan wiki - there were a handful of iPhone and browser games, art books and novelisations, and all of these scanty products dating to around the time of the film's release. A hypothetical diehard Avatar fan doesn't have a lot of options beyond just rewatching the movie again.

So while Avatar was a widely watched sci-fi movie, Avatar 'fandom' is currently more like, well, really liking American Sniper.