Can The Force Awakens take down Avatar

True story: during the design stage of Neytiri, James Cameron would repeatedly ask the designers what he felt was the most important question:
"Yeah, but do you want to do her?" and he only approved the design when the answer was yes.
(Cameron knew that she HAD TO appeal to a human audience).

 

thats ... just ....awkward

 

That's a great point, Biff: What cultural influences will bring people in to a film?

 

What he/she said.

Everyone who thinks that TFA has a chance in hell of beating Avatar (let alone "by a mile") is utterly delusional. Sorry, it will not happen.

Star Wars is special for me; in fact, it's the only movie franchise I care about, but I acknowledge that the chance of displacing Avatar is nil.
Avatar was a global event; an enormous amount of people around the world who have ZERO interest in sci-fi went to see it just for the effects and 3D-glasses gimmick. The only movie that could beat Avatar is Avatar 2...

Bear in mind that Avatar's BO returns are grossly inflated by 3D ticket prices.
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/adjusted.htm
In terms of tickets sold, the #1 movie of all-time is still Gone With the Wind, a film that came out almost 80 years ago. Like Avatar, it had a visual scale that people had never ever seen before. Like Avatar, it had technical gimmickry to draw eyeballs of people who otherwise wouldn't be interested in the subject matter (note the long line of Japanese people waiting to see the film in '52; I doubt they have any particular interest in the USA circa mid 1800's).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gone_with_the_Wind_(film)#Audience_response

That will not happen with TFA.
All I'm sure of is that it should beat The Hunger Games.

Of course TFA will be a BO success.
Of course it will have a gigantic opening weekend and will be boosted by multiple viewings (heck, I saw TPM in theaters 11 times+ and it...well, it was TPM).
It will not beat Avatar.

 

I hated Avatar and have yet to understand why people hail it as some great thing. It left zero imprint on pop culture, and it was literally just Dances With Wolves/Pocahontas in space. White people bad, Indians good, etc. There is absolutely nothing memorable about it.

 

Could not agree more.
Avatar is overrated derivative dreck, IMO.

That said, I will bet my left testicle and a kidney that TFA will not even come close to touching its record.
This is simply a matter of being in touch with reality.

 

That's one thing that REALLY bothered me about Dances With Wolves !! Those nine foot tall Blue Lacota Sioux! And what the hell's up with John Dunbar and a neurological-link chamber!? And the spaceships were SO wrong for the period! I could go on, but I'm already hyperventilating!

 

Yep. But they marketed the hell out of the 3D gimmick, and it's James Cameron...so it was very well made. That's why it got the loot.

 

@Old Biff from the Future you might want to consider setting up a wager on this topic.

 

I respectfully disagree Mr Cyber Dyne. I do not find this awkward at all...

Obviously Mr Cameron wants the designers to loosen up a bit and embrace their kinky sides.

Everyone has one, it flows through all of us like the force.


So people,

let this be a lesson to all of you.

Do not stray away from your abnormalities, because they are what make you who you are. They are what make you unique.

And if you ask me, that is something to be proud of.

 

I realize you are being sarcastic, but it was the same storyline. Soldier who is a loner contacts native tribe, starts to earn their trust, develops relationship with the chiefs daughter, gets accepted by tribe, eventually turns his back on his own people and fights with the natives against his own kind, and becomes leader within the tribe. The setting is different but it is the same story, and in multiple interviews from Cameron and his writers they admitted it was the same story only told in a new way and with new technology. They made no apologies for copying the works of other writers to display the technology they developed. Yes, it was visually stunning at first or second viewing, but like others have said, its "watchability" is what has not endured. I didn't buy the film and won't watch it again if it happens to be on TV, versus Star Wars I have watched countless times and will watch it at any opportune moment, collect the merchandise, attend the conventions, and am at this moment on a SW site talking about it!

 

... and Lawrence of Arabia, and A Princess of Mars and The Emerald Forest and A Man Called Horse and At Play in the Fields of the Lord...

James Cameron drew from all the above stories, not just one (in fact the list keeps going) and That is what storytellers are SUPPOSED TO DO!
You weave and combine the familiar into your story.

"I see as far as I do, because I stand on the shoulders of giants" - Isaac Newton

If we learned anything from what Joseph Campbell taught about mythology it's this:
Once a story type is told enough times, it becomes myth. And myths are stories cultures tell that are common to all of us.

We can do this with Star Wars, too.

 

I agree to a point with what you are saying. But there is a fine line between being influenced, and flat out copying a piece of work and making subtle changes. Lucas was influenced by Japanese films and Flash Gordon, etc, but he came up with his own space opera with a few common themes that people identify with such as a farm boy who longs for adventure, a smartass pirate, a princess in distress, and a wise old wizard type. These character types are common in other films, but Lucas made it his own. That is my problem with Cameron's Avatar. He stole the exact tired and overused plot and simply put it in a sci-fi world without creating his own original piece.

 

The difference is that all those stories are actually interesting in some way. Avatar was just thinly written and forgettable. Star Wars combined elements into a unique melting pot, Avatar is literally Dances With Wolves in space.

 

No.
The conclusion of your comment demonstrates that you have missed my point entirely.

--- Double Post Merged, Nov 12, 2015, Original Post Date: Nov 12, 2015 ---

I'm out of here.

 

Commence primary ignition...

 

No, sir, I don't believe I did. I just don't agree. You seem to suggest that it is okay for Cameron to receive accolades in creative directing or his work because he did what any other writer has done and that is retell the same story. I am saying that for that exact reason is why I don't respect his work on Avatar in comparison to Lucas. I respect originality. Yes one can gleam from other pioneers in the field but Cameron is arrogant in this project as he seemed to state that he was showing us something never before seen in any form, when as you stated, we have seen this story over and over again in different ways. Lucas did not do this. Therefore, in my opinion, that is one of the reasons Star Wars is bigger then Avatar in a cultural significance.

 

ha. I saw phantom menace, hated it, and was forced into attack of the clones and hated it even more and skipped revenge of the sith which to this day i have never seen.

 

If this movie is both entertaining and a good story, it's going to be on top for a while.

If this movie becomes the top grossing movie of all time, Rogue One will likely not beat it next year.