Author Topic: Why does the highest grossing movie ever have zero cultural footprint? (Read 6423 times)

Cerveza mas fina · « **on:** February 21, 2019, 11:24:45 AM »

Its been 10 years and no one cares about avatar now.

headwalk · « **Reply #1 on:** February 21, 2019, 11:37:13 AM »

cause it's shite.

Rufus · « **Reply #2 on:** February 21, 2019, 11:40:57 AM »

[/thread]

Himu · « **Reply #3 on:** February 21, 2019, 11:43:40 AM »

because there hasn't been a sequel. pretty simple. Not even a childrens tv show.

Joe Molotov · « **Reply #4 on:** February 21, 2019, 11:43:51 AM »

It's lasting impact is that they're still trying to get people to pay $3 extra to wear some plastic goggles to every blockbuster movie.

Boredfrom · « **Reply #5 on:** February 21, 2019, 11:58:10 AM »

Quote from: Cindi Mayweather on February 21, 2019, 11:43:40 AM

because there hasn't been a sequel. pretty simple. Not even a childrens tv show.

I think people are going to suddenly care again when the new film comes out, but probably because the James Cameron than anything to do with the franchise.

ToxicAdam · « **Reply #6 on:** February 21, 2019, 11:58:38 AM »

It was a roller coaster. We all put our hands up and said "wheeeee" and then it was over.

nachobro · « **Reply #7 on:** February 21, 2019, 12:22:43 PM »

there's the avatar land at disney world in the park no one ever goes to

BisMarckie · « **Reply #8 on:** February 21, 2019, 12:27:31 PM »

I didn't last long either. These blue chicks were just way too hot.

Kara · « **Reply #9 on:** February 21, 2019, 12:36:47 PM »

Mupepe · « **Reply #10 on:** February 21, 2019, 12:49:09 PM »

Quote from: KennyLoggins on February 21, 2019, 12:27:31 PM

I didn't last long either. These blue chicks were just way too hot.

blue cats, not chicks.

bork · « **Reply #11 on:** February 21, 2019, 12:49:49 PM »

WRONG. It's had a MASSIVE IMPACT.

This video has 21,000 views. 21,000!!!

Brehvolution · « **Reply #12 on:** February 21, 2019, 12:51:49 PM »

Maybe it's legacy was just unobtainium.

Phoenix Dark · « **Reply #13 on:** February 21, 2019, 01:16:53 PM »

In terms of the cultural footprint box office, it definitely grossed less than $250 million.

agrajag · « **Reply #14 on:** February 21, 2019, 01:16:55 PM »

Scullibundo annihilated

I'm a Puppy! · « **Reply #15 on:** February 21, 2019, 01:26:07 PM »

Because everyone already knew the Pocahontas story.

Great Rumbler · « **Reply #16 on:** February 21, 2019, 01:26:16 PM »

Avatar has no sequels [yet], no spinoffs in theaters or on TV, just the one videogame adaptation from 10 years ago, no comic books or novels, and isn't attached to a larger property. So it pretty much falls exclusively on the content of the movie itself to create the footprint, and there just isn't enough substance there for people to hang onto.

I guess you could blame the 3D craze on it, though.

Brehvolution · « **Reply #17 on:** February 21, 2019, 01:37:58 PM »

It did look amazing on my 3D TV.

Rufus · « **Reply #18 on:** February 21, 2019, 02:16:56 PM »

Quote from: Kara on February 21, 2019, 12:36:47 PM

(Image removed from quote.)

So is our flesh, major.

Joe Molotov · « **Reply #19 on:** February 21, 2019, 03:15:05 PM »

Quote from: shosta on February 21, 2019, 02:21:31 PM

Long ago, the four nations lived together in harmony. Then, everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked. Only the Avatar, master of all four elements, could stop them, but when the world needed him most, he vanished. A hundred years passed and my brother and I discovered the new Avatar, an airbender named Aang, and although his airbending skills are great, he has a lot to learn before he's ready to save anyone. But I believe Aang can save the world.

Yeah, it's crazy that people have already forgotten about this M. Night Shyamalan masterpiece.

Joe Molotov · « **Reply #20 on:** February 21, 2019, 04:12:49 PM »

Movies don't have cool one-liners anymore, for you and your bros to sit around and quote ad nauseam. Can you imagine people quoting Avatar all the time? What would they even say? "We really are the Avatar, Ellie."

Occam · « **Reply #21 on:** February 21, 2019, 04:19:57 PM »

Just because many people like something, that doesn't mean it's good.

Great Rumbler · « **Reply #22 on:** February 21, 2019, 04:32:48 PM »

Quote from: riotous on February 21, 2019, 04:25:41 PM

Which makes the sequels coming really difficult to predict success for.

Yeah, it's hard to say. The hype has definitely died down a lot, especially compared to how it was in the first few years afterward, but you still bet against James Cameron at your own peril.

VomKriege · « **Reply #23 on:** February 21, 2019, 04:43:03 PM »

The gross is a bit of a misleading metric, because of inflation both in general and the involution of ticket prizes. Box office in France is expressed in tickets sold and it's a much better indicator of popularity (though less useful as an economic one). I don't have the numbers with me but IIRC, while raw gross revenue have seemingly never been higher, the truth is that the audience for cinema theaters plummeted at some point after the war. Probably in no small part because of TV.

See that Reddit thread for some context (1,3 billion tickets sold in the US in 2018 for comparison):
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.reddit.com/r/answers/comments/1di9ps/in_which_year_were_the_most_movie_tickets_sold/

"Cinema" is fine but the cinema theater experience (with its collective nature fostered into a fairly tight time window and as a centerpiece of society as a whole) has declined quite a bit even compared to what our parents may have experienced.

I think the film is pretty flat and trite, to be honest. It's not the first hugely successful movie to be so and seemingly having so little footprint though maybe it's the biggest. My speculative 2c on why it "overperformed" despite being so bland is that Cameron was riding the Titanic mega success. I guess we'll see how the sequels perform.

curly · « **Reply #24 on:** February 21, 2019, 05:44:55 PM »

The only thing I remember about this movie is the hair sex

benjipwns · « **Reply #25 on:** February 21, 2019, 07:03:10 PM »

I only watched it with RiffTrax.

Still regretted it and probably zoned out a bunch.

BlueTsunami · « **Reply #26 on:** February 21, 2019, 08:54:43 PM »

Because high grade escapism is still escapism

BlueTsunami · « **Reply #27 on:** February 21, 2019, 08:57:17 PM »

If Cameron turns this into his blue tinted Dune id be down for it though. Otherwise its indulgent bestiality.

recursivelyenumerable · « **Reply #28 on:** February 21, 2019, 09:08:58 PM »

https://twitter.com/lovelykeffie/status/1097270089378877442
https://twitter.com/lovelykeffie/status/1097274356907081731

recursivelyenumerable · « **Reply #29 on:** February 21, 2019, 09:37:15 PM »

Posting my own tweets can't stop me

https://twitter.com/crossslide/status/1098768154841382913
https://twitter.com/crossslide/status/1098772150683496448

naff · « **Reply #30 on:** February 21, 2019, 09:55:29 PM »

Quote from: riotous on February 21, 2019, 09:26:10 PM

Why is that person calling a movie a meme?

I want to murder them.

There are memes. And there are m e m e s.

BisMarckie · « **Reply #31 on:** February 27, 2019, 03:07:13 AM »

Misspelling Nietzsche.

Joe Molotov · « **Reply #32 on:** February 27, 2019, 08:48:07 AM »

They OWN!

recursivelyenumerable · « **Reply #33 on:** February 28, 2019, 08:30:16 PM »

Quote from: KennyLoggins on February 27, 2019, 03:07:13 AM

Misspelling Nietzsche.

She uses a different wrong spelling later in the thread, I was hoping she was trolling and I'd see another two or three distinct wrong spellings as I scrolled down, but alas there's only the two.

TVC15 · « **Reply #34 on:** February 28, 2019, 08:34:56 PM »

I’d rather watch House Party 4.

HyperZoneWasAwesome · « **Reply #35 on:** March 01, 2019, 12:33:15 AM »

It just occurred to me that I've never seen an Avatar meme. Not once. I mean, shit... people don't even like Spider-Man 3 and that got memed' to hell and back. Its a thing nearly everybody has seen, its hard to find a more common frame of reference, and yet, no memes. I seen more memes of second string Indian film stars fer crying out loud.

I am pretty sure it was a low-key significant contributing factor to Disney buying Fox, but I can't really prove that.

Cerveza mas fina · « **Reply #36 on:** March 01, 2019, 02:24:33 AM »

There is just nothing memorable about it, like nothing

VomKriege · « **Reply #37 on:** March 01, 2019, 04:18:37 AM »

Quote from: HyperZoneWasAwesome on March 01, 2019, 12:33:15 AM

It just occurred to me that I've never seen an Avatar meme. Not once. I mean, shit... people don't even like Spider-Man 3 and that got memed' to hell and back. Its a thing nearly everybody has seen, its hard to find a more common frame of reference, and yet, no memes. I seen more memes of second string Indian film stars fer crying out loud.

I am pretty sure it was a low-key significant contributing factor to Disney buying Fox, but I can't really prove that.

I believe at the time there were talks of people going into retreat because of the film shock of leaving the beautiful world of Generica. Plus some people who blued themselves... But that was often reported by people trying to explain me that Avatar was the most culturally significant thing ever so take it with a grain of salt.

Also saw posters for the Cirque du Soleil having an avatar show just a few weeks ago.

VomKriege · « **Reply #38 on:** March 01, 2019, 04:21:03 AM »

https://forum.learnnavi.org/index.php?

Reb · « **Reply #39 on:** March 01, 2019, 04:42:07 AM »

Still haven't seen this thing.

Olivia Wilde Homo · « **Reply #40 on:** March 01, 2019, 11:03:36 PM »

Quote from: Reb on March 01, 2019, 04:42:07 AM

Still haven't seen this thing.

Same here. I do know a lot of people who saw it and loved it. I always assumed it was Dances With Wolves In Space.

Trurl · « **Reply #41 on:** March 01, 2019, 11:21:30 PM »

I thought the whole "we see you" thing was a reference to Avatar.

Occasionally I'll call things cheddar

Dickie Dee · « **Reply #42 on:** March 01, 2019, 11:54:33 PM »

Avatar is the Sam Worthington of movies.

Great Rumbler · « **Reply #43 on:** March 02, 2019, 09:26:24 AM »

Quote from: Dickie Dee on March 01, 2019, 11:54:33 PM

Avatar is the Sam Worthington of movies.

You're not wrong. He was everywhere for about a year, then just vanished into the ether. Ironically, his return to major cinema is the next Avatar movie.

Himu · « **Reply #44 on:** March 02, 2019, 09:30:03 AM »

Real talk if they wanted to build the Avatar brand, all they had to do was make a cartoon prequel on cartoon network or something and maybe an MMO or whatever. The world is good for a WoW-esque horde (blue people) vs humans esque factions things. Instead, no one will remember what Avatar even is when Avatar 2 comes around. It's shocking how little they've done with a movie that made so much. Pretty ridiculous when you think about it.

Quote from: Olivia Wilde Homo on March 01, 2019, 11:03:36 PM

Quote from: Reb on March 01, 2019, 04:42:07 AM
Still haven't seen this thing.

Same here. I do know a lot of people who saw it and loved it. I always assumed it was Dances With Wolves In Space.

It really is.

Huff · « **Reply #45 on:** March 02, 2019, 09:43:05 AM »

I saw it. It was fine

Himu · « **Reply #46 on:** March 02, 2019, 09:56:35 AM »

Yeah I like the movie. It's not the greatest but fun.

Kara · « **Reply #47 on:** March 02, 2019, 12:08:46 PM »

People rant and rave about various eras of GAF and Fake GAF moderation but none of them live up to the era when GAF's mods let Scullibundo render Off-Topic utterly unreadable with his incessant new threads about AVATAR.

Also my semi-serious answer to the original question of this thread is: No Felix Biederman, but I'm sure it's a huge coincidence that a vaguely anti-imperialist movie was set to the side in the imperialist core after making money out the wazoo.

VomKriege · « **Reply #48 on:** March 02, 2019, 01:18:03 PM »

Quote

People rant and rave about various eras of GAF and Fake GAF moderation but none of them live up to the era when GAF's mods let Scullibundo render Off-Topic utterly unreadable with his incessant new threads about AVATAR.

It's not stereotypical characters, it's Jungian archetypes

Some fans were really invested in selling it as the greatest, most insightful thing ever made at the time, a window into no less than humanity unconsciousness.

Mandark · « **Reply #49 on:** March 02, 2019, 02:14:38 PM »

The old heads will remember there was a bout of Avatar obsession on this forum too.

Joe Molotov · « **Reply #50 on:** March 02, 2019, 02:21:41 PM »

Quote from: Mandark on March 02, 2019, 02:14:38 PM

The old heads will remember there was a bout of Avatar obsession on this forum too.

team filler · « **Reply #51 on:** March 02, 2019, 02:25:35 PM »

dat culture

News:

Author Topic: Why does the highest grossing movie ever have zero cultural footprint? (Read 6423 times)