Amph James Cameron's Avatar (The Way of Water + sequels)

I'm very glad he's smarter than Peter Jackson.

 

I loved the Hobbit in HFR. Amazing looking.

 

I don't even like watching porn in HFR, I hated it in an actual movie... I mean, uh, who goes to movie theaters any more! WHAT?!?

 

I thought about peeking my head into a HFR Gemini Man just to give it a looksee, I think it's unique and things did look "clearer" but some shots looked wonky but it's been quite a while since I've seen The Hobbit in HFR. Cameron's comments are actually really good, like this bit:

Well, this is the thing. To me, the more mundane the subject, two people talking in the kitchen, the worse it works, because you feel like you’re in a set of a kitchen with actors in makeup. That’s how real it is, you know? But I think when you’ve got extraordinary subjects that are being shot for real, or even through CG, that hyper-reality actually works in your favor. So to me, it’s a wand that you wave in certain moments and use when you need it. It’s an authoring tool.”

 

Hm, says in the comments there is a game coming.

 

Is that supposed to be Pandora or Hawaii?

 

The 2020’s will be an interesting decade for Hollywood pop sci-fi as Cameron’s Avatar and Villeneuve’s Dune present alternating expressions of Herbert-style trans-humanism, Gaia theory, and politics. I’m curious as to whether audiences gravitate more towards the optimism of Avatar, or the (presumably) darker styles of Dune.

 

I'm not looking forward to either one of those. And I'm not sure mainstream audiences are, either.

 

Avatar will still make a billion dollars but it'll be a Fast and Furious/Aquaman type billion, where in it does like 250 in North America and 750 overseas.

 

Looking forward to both. I don't feel Dune will suffer as 2049. I don't see how mainstream audiences which propelled Avatar to 2.7 billion would not be interested in sequels.

 

Agreed. I think it's tempting to undersell how well the sequels will perform because the original seems to have left so little imprint on the entertainment cultural landscape and due to 3D not being nearly the rage that the first Avatar ended up building the format into. I don't think any of the sequels will end up equaling the first one, but we don't know how an Avatar movie with the benefit of even a shred of nostalgia will perform. And we haven't seen a single piece of real marketing for it yet either. I wouldn't be surprised to see at least the first sequel crack $2B. How the rest end up doing will hinge a lot on how much audiences end up liking it.

 

Avatar 2 is a safe bet. It's the same reason we're getting Bad Boys For Life, The Grudge, Dolittle, Birds of Prey, A Quiet Place Part II, Mulan, Fast & Furious 9, Top Gun: Maverick, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, The Purge 5, Minions: The Rise of Gru, Bill & Ted Face the Music, Venom 2, Coming 2 America, etc... Established IPs don't have to "work" as hard, they have a built in fan base, and while they probably won't be huge successes, the hope is that they will at least swing a profit.

Rich Evans of Red Letter Media has said that Star Wars is creatively bankrupt. I think the same can be said about Hollywood in general.

 

I don't think it's simply that Hollywood is creatively bankrupt. I mean all of those high concept cable and streaming shows of the past 10 years or so are made by many of same folks. But the studios are certainly risk averse. They always have been but the tightening of ancillary revenue streams that helped many films become profitable after their theatrical runs were done has exacerbated the aversion. That combined with creative narrow mindedness is what we're seeing play out.

Though I think one's age is a factor in the perception to. The older we get the more aware we become that most things are doing what something else already did.

 

That equation is going to change now that virtually all studios are in the process of getting into streaming. They can continue producing and then adjust the distribution pipeline. Things that are likely to make money in theaters will go to theaters, all other productions straight to streaming. As long as they don't have too many box-office bombs, it will be an even safer business model than before.
It's the theater chains that should worry about being gradually squeezed out, imho

 

David W Collins mentions during the "Casablanca" episode of the Soundtrack Show podcast, that Warner Bros was essentially a movie making machine and they were just cranking out movies one after the other. If Movie A did well because Reason/Idea B, then they would implant that Reason/Idea B into Movie C so Movie C would hopefully be successful in the same vein as Movie A. The carbon copying wasn't very apparent and probably disguised to the casual movie goer back in the day when people weren't analyzing movies the way we do now.

As you mention, @Bilbo Fett, that one's age may be a factor, I agree, but it's also taking the time to read the books or research or listen to the podcasts of people who have done the research that have noticed the same plot points or action beats or love stories that were being copied from, for example, a 1959 movie and used in a 1961 movie.

Are movies going to die? Not anytime soon. Especially when 50+ people are willing to pay $15-20 to see one movie once verses paying $10 a month for 1 streaming service.

 

But increasingly, it takes the biggest and splashiest movies to get people off their streaming devices. Mid-budget movies are being squeezed out, all that's left usually are the big-budget spectacles and the cheap horror movies that are usually profitable.

 

Theatrical releases will increasingly become the domain of movies that benefit from the theatrical viewing experience. Those you mentioned (though horror benefits both from being relatively cheap to make and people into the genre like watching them in large crowds). And the occasional unicorns like Rocky Horror and the recent Cats. Can probably throw in serials that can leverage people's aversion to spoilers to drive people out to theaters ASAP.

 

And to tie it back to the be on topic, the Avatar movies are meant to be seen in the theater. James Cameron makes movies that should be viewed on a giant screen with giant sound.

Out of all the 3D movies I've seen, the only one I enjoyed was the first one I saw which was Avatar.