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But why in the world would anybody want to see Avatar in only 2D? Or want to own the laserdisc of its tech generation? In a stripped-down, zero-extras version? Still, 20th Century Fox tells me that Avatar has ”blown away” the first day Blu-ray record held by Warner Bros’ The Dark Knight which sold 600K units in North America and the UK. Whereas Fox sold 1.5 million units in the U.S. and Canada. (And yet the yutzes in 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment didn’t bother to send out a press release.) A so-called special edition comes out later in 2010, and the 3D edition in 2011.
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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Whoa this is weird. I thought WHISKEY said that Avatar would flop on DVD?
And he’s usually sooooo right…
Ha. WHISKEY! That dude is such a right-wing whack job. Turns out that resume doesn’t translate into box-office expertise. I look forward to his next bat shit crazy post.
you beat me on the whiskey comment. I’m curious as to what his explanation is going to be…
I’m going to wait for the extended version at Xmas.
Any word on how much they spent marketing though? Avatar is EVERYWHERE today. I’ve accidentally clicked on the Amazon link about ten times while perusing ESPN.com alone.
Good. Maybe when all those people see the movie in 2D on the small screen, they’ll realize what a crappy movie it is.
Did you like DANCES WITH WOLVES?
Yeah, that’s why it’s so successful. How many movies have you made?? In fact, what is the point of your life?
Very simple Nikki. Because the 3D technology has very little to do with the Avatar visuals.
I saw Avatar on a TRUE Imax (only one in NYC) first time and then went to see it in 2D. To my surprise — no dramatic difference in the experience.
The technical brilliance of Avatar was the motion capture of faces and the super-giant computer that allowed Cameron to direct the actors in the Pandora environment. 3D was mere nuance, regardless of what the media (and big Hollywood) wants to tell us.
“But why in the world would anybody want to see Avatar only in 2D?”
Personally, I think that comment says something about the storytelling quality in the film.
The movie looks great in 2D in high def. The people pushing 3D glasses for home use are delusional.
And people ripping on Avatar’s quality, especially relative to its place in genre filmmaking, are quite amusing.
3-D get’s me motion sick sometimes so I’d probably buy the 2 D version also. Guess that’s just me.
…and tonight coming out of a movie at the Grove, I stumbled upon a huge kiosk where you can “create your own Avatar” in real-time – a long line of tourists were getting having their faces turn blue with yellow cat-eyes – gimmicky, but still, a pretty cool marketing tie-in. p.s. I’m the only person left in America (the globe?) who HASN’T yet seen Avatar on the big screen.
Nice!! Dark Knight is overrated. Nikki- any idea on how well dark knight did for 1st week?
Don’t need it, have Pocahontas at home.
1.5 Million units in its first day on Blu Ray. Wow I had no idea Blu Ray sales were that terrible. I guess I should of known since Best Buy has buckets of them on sales every week.
And, of course, the irony is that Cameron is celebrating Earth Day by suggesting consumers buy the first of three editions of non-biodegradable discs which could end up going to a land-fill.
ha ha! i agree. I would like to see environmentalists give up their car keys and start walking or even ride a bike.
This first release will be picked up by many of those who never bothered to see it on the big screen in 3D as well as those who have seemingly been brain washed by it and want to watch it over and over again. No doubt many of those who buy it now will again dip into their pockets when the 3D version arrives. In a way it’s clever to do it this way because it does guarantee making in even more money.
I’ve picked up the single-disc DVD yesterday. I’m not interested in buying the feature-packed 2-disc edition or the 3D version. (I’ve only ever double-dipped for the LOTR extended editions.)
And I’ve seen “Avatar” in digital 3D — all the 3D did was add subtlety and immersiveness to the visuals, which is nice. But to me, I’m not interested in knowing every behind-the-scenes bit of “Avatar.” Too much stroking Cameron’s ego, I’m afraid
some people want and can afford to get both versions retard. This is the best looking blu ray i have ever seen. The 3d is nothing but hype anyway. It looks fantastic in 2d.
I saw it in 2D and it’s definitely less of a movie without the gimmick.
Of course it will flop. Consider this, Dark Knight was two years ago. By now the natural growth of Blu-Ray makes the sales not really that remarkable.
If you have a Blu-Ray player and high def TV, what else would you buy?
BUT … there’s no way you can demand premium prices the way 3-D tickets did for the theatrical release. The movie has not even shown a profit yet, according to News Corp, and won’t until DVD and Blu-Ray revenues are complete. That’s a pretty long pay-back.
If most TVs were hi-def three dimensional, and you could command a hefty price increase over everything else, yeah it would make money. Or most consumers cash-strapped will wait until they rent the DVD out of Redbox for a buck. Its not like life will cease by waiting a month.
I’ve seen press release after press release from Sony, Panasonic, and others predicting three dimensional tv sets selling like hotcakes, at premium prices. I don’t see wage gains and employment gains that consumers will be going out and spending money on electronic toys.
It would be nice for Hollywood to have a high-margin model. Make an AVATAR and rake in the bucks for Blu-Ray and three dimensional Blu-Ray. Does anyone think that’s likely? Seriously?
Oh Whiskey, don’t ever change. (pinches cheeks)
“The movie has not even shown a profit yet, according to News Corp”
Could you please tell us where you read this?
Oh, you are killing me
I love the Hollywood math, $2B+ in gross revenue, not counting toys, tie ins, promotionals with companies, etc.. I’m sure they are regretting ever investing. *rolls eyes*
Whiskey lives in his mom’s basement and drinks a lot of booze. It’s not fair to make fun of him. It’s like picking on the mentally challenged.
Not shown a profit yet? Uh-hah…heh…huh..haha…hahahahahahahaah…HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!
Funny, the guys who financed this movie are convinced it’s turning a profit, at least that’s what they’ve told me. But I guess 2.7b theatrically on a negative cost of at most 600 including marketing isn’t turning a profit.
Someone should track the record breaking “returns to the store” Avatar will be setting! Apparently the blu-ray firmware upgrades are not available on all players… like my 2 month old high-end home ent/pc system! I’m going to return my Blu-Ray copy to the store today! Track this one Deadline.
Umm, how could you ever call a format that moves 1.5 million units in a single day the “laserdisc of its tech generation?” Blu-ray has far more market penetration than laserdisc ever had. Even my mom watches Blu-ray and she’s hardly a technophile.
Just saw the 2D Blu Ray and I have to say that it was quite impressive on a visual basis. Waaaaay better than the 3D Imax I saw in NYC imho. Those clunky glasses were annoying and the pic was dark and dingy where this time I was able to appreciate the level of detail. But don’t get me wrong I think this movie on its substance will in the future suffer major backlash because quite simply the narrative and the acting across the board I’m sorry to say just don’t cut it. Its just bad teenage jerkoff fanboy writing. Take the 3D and the awe inspired effects out and the flaws pop out like a sore thumb. Sad but true. The whole time I kept skipping to the action beats because some of the more dramatic scenes were so laughably bad I couldn’t take it. Hopefully Tron Legacy doesn’t suffer the same fate.
With the new version of Avatar released to the theaters in August with six extra minutes, I guess that will mean even more versions on DVD and BRay. What’s the over/under on how many versions of Avatar will ultimately be released? I’ll wait to buy the BRay until they release it with some extras.
I had some friends over tonight and we watched the Blu-ray in my theater room and I for one loved it just as much as when I saw it in IMAX 3D.
IMO if you *NEED* 3D to enjoy a film than there is something fundamentally wrong with the film and the story itself because it isn’t doing it’s job.
The image quality on this BD is mesmerizing, you almost just want to pause it and leave it that way as a work of art.
The laserdisc of the tech generation? What a terribly unintelligent and ignorant sentence.
Whiskey, are you retarded? Avatar has not shown a profit? The only situation in which News Corp would report this would be if, say…the movie was still in its first month in theaters. Even this, which at least somewhat supports your ridiculous claim: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/03/business/media/03news.html
states that the profits were barely yet recognized since “In the quarter we booked much of the film’s costs but only a small portion of its receipts.”
Not liking a film is fine. Spouting your long-winded opinions is also fine. Denial of painfully obvious facts is cause for worry, though.
So they leave us to extrapolate that AVATAR sold 8.5 million units on DVD; (85% vs 15%)
and 1.5 million on Blu Ray. chickenfeed I guess
Anecdotal evidence: local in-city video shop had 7 copies on BR and 25 on DVD
and 3rd and final quarter sales chart of VIDEO BUSINESS
WONDER WHY