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AVATAR - Sci-fi epic by James Cameron @ COMIC-CON

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duckroll said:
I don't think anyone gives a fuck about this "Avatar Day" nonsense except people like us in this thread. Seriously. You can imagine that there's this huge crowd out there ready to get all hyped up for it, but unless something MAJOR happens, nothing will change.

Of course. No one knows or cares about 'Avatar Day'. Why should they? It's a film with no marketing as of yet, and the vast majority of people haven't heard of it for this reason.
What I've been saying is that it's goddamn obvious that things are going to change and something 'major' will happen. People are acting like things are going to stay this way all the way up to December, or that Fox haven't considered the fact that hype won't build if you do no marketing.
Do people think that Fox just can't be bothered to form a sound strategy to help sell their biggest financial gamble ever? Seriously?
 
Krev said:
Of course. No one knows or cares about 'Avatar Day'. Why should they? It's a film with no marketing as of yet, and the vast majority of people haven't heard of it for this reason.
What I've been saying is that it's goddamn obvious that things are going to change and something 'major' will happen.

That's what we expected at Comicon too. I'm no longer expecting anything, because it isn't goddamn obvious at all that anything "major" will happen. If the trailer comes online and is just a trailer like any other scifi movie trailer, how will that be a major change? Maybe the 3D footage is really impressive, but like in Comicon not everyone will get to see it, and by the time most people know about it, it won't be available anymore. Big deal.
 
duckroll said:
That's what we expected at Comicon too. I'm no longer expecting anything, because it isn't goddamn obvious at all that anything "major" will happen.
I say it's obvious something will eventually happen because this is the biggest money sink in the history of Fox, and as I said, they've had four years to formulate a strategy. They registered viral urls for this film in 2005. Of course they've considered many, many marketing angles. For whatever reason, they've decided to go with a very late start campaign, and they must be pretty sure that their plan will make hype explode and the film a smash success.

duckroll said:
If the trailer comes online and is just a trailer like any other scifi movie trailer, how will that be a major change?
I wouldn't count on that happening. This film, by its plot alone, isn't like any sci-fi film released in the past decade. It's not very often at all that a film is released featuring high-grade CGI characters, and even rarer that a film set on an alien planet is released.
 
Krev said:
I wouldn't count on that happening. This film, by its plot alone, isn't like any sci-fi film released in the past decade. It's not very often at all that a film is released featuring high-grade CGI characters, and even rarer that a film set on an alien planet is released.

I really don't think that's what will get a lot of people interested in this movie, at least not in a trailer. Wow, look, amazing CGI character and an alien planet! Yeah, no. Soccer moms don't give a shit about sci-fi. It's the 'revolutionary' 3D, word of mouth and the director's name / his past movies (Terminator 2, Titanic).
 
A bit off-topic: For some reason people only Terminator 2 and not 1 when talking about Cameron. Actually I know people who think he only did T2. Is that because T2 was more successful or something?
 
Zabojnik said:
I really don't think that's what will get a lot of people interested in this movie, at least not in a trailer. Wow, look, amazing CGI character and an alien planet! Yeah, no. Soccer moms don't give a shit about sci-fi. It's the 'revolutionary' 3D, word of mouth and the director's name / his past movies (Terminator 2, Titanic).

I wouldn't be so sure. See: The Matrix. You can sell a film based on its spectacular imagery.
Avatar is targeting a broader audience, so I imagine they'll really try to push the romance/epic elements and harness the pedigree of the director (they're obviously planning this based on the 'James Cameron's Avatar' brand that's being established).
Really, it will look quite spectacular though.

DieNgamers said:
A bit off-topic: For some reason people only Terminator 2 and not 1 when talking about Cameron. Actually I know people who think he only did T2. Is that because T2 was more successful or something?
T2 is iconic. It's a source of great nostalgia for a lot of people. It was a huge cultural sensation at the time of its release, and many consider it to be one of the best films in the action genre.
 
But what gets me most about this whole rabid Avatar fandom is the amount of people who manically defend the film despite the fact they haven't seen a single frame of it yet.

And don't take the old 'scriptment' that's been kicking around for years as some kind of reasonable level of knowledge of the project.

Take my advice people, I'm looking forward to this film but keep your expectations in check, those who are expecting the moon and the stars are the ones who liable to fall the furthest if this isn't what they think it will be.

duckroll said:
That's what we expected at Comicon too. I'm no longer expecting anything, because it isn't goddamn obvious at all that anything "major" will happen. If the trailer comes online and is just a trailer like any other scifi movie trailer, how will that be a major change? Maybe the 3D footage is really impressive, but like in Comicon not everyone will get to see it, and by the time most people know about it, it won't be available anymore. Big deal.

Every day it feels as though we are edging towards this very scenario. As I said before, the trailer needs to be huge. It needs to be something that people are actually buzzing about.

Remember the way people were clamouring to see '300' after the trailer was released. I remember crowd's buzzing with excitement when it came on before a film in the cinema.

That's what the Avatar trailer needs to be a this point. If it's just another trailer then Fox have a real hill to climb to get this film the sort of buz that was promised.
 
Busty said:
That's what the Avatar trailer needs to be a this point. If it's just another trailer then Fox have a real hill to climb to get this film the sort of buz that was promised.

I'm confident that the Avatar trailer will completely
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the audience.
 
Busty said:
Remember the way people were clamouring to see '300' after the trailer was released. I remember crowd's buzzing with excitement when it came on before a film in the cinema.

That's what the Avatar trailer needs to be a this point. If it's just another trailer then Fox have a real hill to climb to get this film the sort of buz that was promised.
On another board I saw a post from someone who works in film marketing. They said the standards for the trailer and other marketing materials were the harshest they had ever seen. It should be quite special.

If it isn't, I'll concede that Fox are mind-bogglingly stupid.
 
DieNgamers said:
A bit off-topic: For some reason people only Terminator 2 and not 1 when talking about Cameron. Actually I know people who think he only did T2. Is that because T2 was more successful or something?

When I was a kid I thought he only did T2 as well, for some reason or another.
 
DieNgamers said:
A bit off-topic: For some reason people only Terminator 2 and not 1 when talking about Cameron. Actually I know people who think he only did T2. Is that because T2 was more successful or something?
I thought "True Lies" was really over-looked as well.
 
Krev said:
I wouldn't be so sure. See: The Matrix. You can sell a film based on its spectacular imagery.
Avatar is targeting a broader audience, so I imagine they'll really try to push the romance/epic elements and harness the pedigree of the director (they're obviously planning this based on the 'James Cameron's Avatar' brand that's being established).
Really, it will look quite spectacular though.

From my experience, which may or may not count at all, with Matrix it was the great word of mouth that made it in the end. I mean, I went to see it exclusively because the founder of the #hentai channel on DalNet (I know, I know, I was young and horny back then :)) wrote 'Go see The Matrix. It was surprisingly good.' in the topic.

Hopefully the trailer is so amazing it will have the same effect.
 
Krev said:
On another board I saw a post from someone who works in film marketing. They said the standards for the trailer and other marketing materials were the harshest they had ever seen. It should be quite special.

If it isn't, I'll concede that James Cameron's massive ego has seriously clouded his judgment.

Fixed for reality.
 
Zabojnik said:
From my experience, which may or may not count at all, with Matrix it was the great word of mouth that made it in the end. I mean, I went to see it exclusively because the founder of the #hentai channel on DalNet (I know, I know, I was young and horny back then :)) wrote 'Go see The Matrix. It was surprisingly good.' in the topic.

Hopefully the trailer is so amazing it will have the same effect.

akward.
 
duckroll said:
I think the consensus here is that there is no fucking deal. That's what. :(
If there is no Avatar Day, regardless of the real reason, I'm making the Inception trailer the primary reason. Cameron, YOU SHOOK!
 
Busty said:
But what gets me most about this whole rabid Avatar fandom is the amount of people who manically defend the film despite the fact they haven't seen a single frame of it yet.

And don't take the old 'scriptment' that's been kicking around for years as some kind of reasonable level of knowledge of the project.

Take my advice people, I'm looking forward to this film but keep your expectations in check, those who are expecting the moon and the stars are the ones who liable to fall the furthest if this isn't what they think it will be.

There is no reason not to defend it. We've only had the highest possible complimentary from the best film journalists out there that have seen it at Comic-con. Cameron is the mastermind behind the highest grossing movie of all time, and perhaps the best Sci-fi flick of my youth; T2. My expectations will remain extremely high walking into Avatar, and nothing will change that at this point. There is a standard that Cameron set before he left the industry for more than a decade, that benchmark is one that no one has reached during his hiatus as far as I'm concerned, and we'll finally see it reached again and maybe raised in December.
 
Scullibundo said:
:lol :lol :lol

Maybe if the series was something that would get the general public excited your claim would hold some weight, but the fact is that association with The Last Airbender is very bad for Cameron's film.

NO. Bullshit. Avatar is one of the most well received cartoons in recent memory. It is the tentpole film for next July 4th weekend. It's trailer is already being well received since it was on Transformers and Harry Potter. Even Cameron is aware of this.

Association is very good as it will get a lot of people in the theatre that don't know a damn thing about what they're seeing (You movie theatre employees know how many of those there are.) It is very bad because of the confusion.

Thanks to you I know how awesome Avatar is going to be, but thanks to Fox I also think it's going to be a clusterfuck that's going to fail to do a lot. This Avatar Day should have been a great event. With 10 days left, I'm not even sure if it's even going to happen.
 
critch said:
NO. Bullshit. Avatar is one of the most well received cartoons in recent memory. It is the tentpole film for next July 4th weekend. It's trailer is already being well received since it was on Transformers and Harry Potter. Even Cameron is aware of this.

Association is very good as it will get a lot of people in the theatre that don't know a damn thing about what they're seeing (You movie theatre employees know how many of those there are.) It is very bad because of the confusion.

Thanks to you I know how awesome Avatar is going to be, but thanks to Fox I also think it's going to be a clusterfuck that's going to fail to do a lot. This Avatar Day should have been a great event. With 10 days left, I'm not even sure if it's even going to happen.

It is bad for Cameron's film, because like it or not, Airbender is well-received by large groups of children. Yes I know there are a few groups of adults who enjoy it as well, but it still only holds popular status as a saturday morning cartoon and is not likely to generate any positive expectations from anybody outside of the geek or younger audiences.
 
Scullibundo said:
It is bad for Cameron's film, because like it or not, Airbender is well-received by large groups of children. Yes I know there are a few groups of adults who enjoy it as well, but it still only holds popular status as a saturday morning cartoon and is not likely to generate any positive expectations from anybody outside of the geek or younger audiences.

Transformers and GI Joe.
 
Scullibundo said:
It is bad for Cameron's film, because like it or not, Airbender is well-received by large groups of children. Yes I know there are a few groups of adults who enjoy it as well, but it still only holds popular status as a saturday morning cartoon and is not likely to generate any positive expectations from anybody outside of the geek or younger audiences.

Kids like CG cartoons, therefor they should dig Jim's Avatar.
 
Snaku said:
Kids like CG cartoons, therefor they should dig Jim's Avatar.
Despite the trolling, you actually you have a point. Fox are really going to go after kids with this movie...in addition to everyone else.
 
This movie cannot survive without kids, because the audience that made Titanic such a success is not going to be there. It's a movie about CGI aliens riding around on dragon like things. The push for kids is going to probably be Fox's main thrust, because adults don't show up for this kind of stuff in general.

I do think you're underestimating the potential for Last Airbender. I wouldn't be too surprised if that does better box office.
 
At this point its obvious that they are going for the word of mouth approach because its a very powerful thing. And I don't blame them for not doing an all out marketing cluster fuck where we so so many trailers and other media that some peoples excitement might wear down by the time the movie comes out.
 
I'm convinced this movie needs very little marketing to succeed. Thinking back to Titanic, I had no idea of its existence until about a week before it came out. I saw a trailer for it on TV and was like, what the hell, there's a new James Cameron movie? And we all know how well that movie did.

I doubt this movie will have quite the universal appeal that Titanic had, but I do believe it will end up being an experience that no one will want to miss, and it will be hugely successful.
 
critch said:
This movie cannot survive without kids, because the audience that made Titanic such a success is not going to be there. It's a movie about CGI aliens riding around on dragon like things. The push for kids is going to probably be Fox's main thrust, because adults don't show up for this kind of stuff in general.

I do think you're underestimating the potential for Last Airbender. I wouldn't be too surprised if that does better box office.

:lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol

I'm sorry but you are completely underestimating the advertisement push this is going to get in a couple of months. The Las Airbender will wish it had as much of a broad appeal that Avatar will have.
 
People seem to forget that marketing isn't just something you drop over the masses and call it a day. Fox has been atrocious, yes, and it's obvious they will do something about it and most likely spend quite a lot of money doing so. However, doing something, big or small, does not equal an actual successful marketing campaign. Considering Fox's track record with the film, it is understandable that some will doubt anything appropriate being done.

One thing's for sure: Fox is not WB.
 
critch said:
This movie cannot survive without kids, because the audience that made Titanic such a success is not going to be there. It's a movie about CGI aliens riding around on dragon like things. The push for kids is going to probably be Fox's main thrust, because adults don't show up for this kind of stuff in general.

For Christ's sake, Transformers 2 is the highest grossing movie of the year, and that's about a teenage boy and his pet robot from space that can transform into a car, who joins a bunch of other transforming robots from space to fight a bunch of evil robots.
That's considered a 'four quadrant' film that hits every demographic. No film makes as much money as it has with only kids going to see it.

critch said:
I do think you're underestimating the potential for Last Airbender. I wouldn't be too surprised if that does better box office.
Yeah...no. Karma Kramer is right.
Avatar is a CGI infused sci-fi action spectacular that also has the hook of a (reportedly) seriously dazzling aesthetic and world, and blends all of this with a traditional war/romance epic narrative. The appeal is a lot broader than some of the doom-sayers are making it out to be.
 
The LA Times has some new specifics. On Monday, August 17, Fox will give away tickets on a first-come, first-serve basis through the website avatarmovie.com. Tickets will be available beginning at Noon PST (3pm EST), so you’ll have to be ready to click right then, as even with more than a hundred participating theatres (around 70 in the US) the tickets will go fast. Will you be able to score more than one or two tickets at a time? We don’t yet know, but expect a severe limitation on tickets per user. (And start taking odds now on what they’ll go for on eBay by Monday evening.)


The screenings will take place at 6 and 6:30pm on Friday, August 21. The presentation will begin with an introduction from James Cameron, after which will follow sixteen minutes of footage, including some stuff not shown at Comic Con. (The LA Times says sixteen minutes, which contrasts the originally announced 15 minutes. I’ll update to clarify when I know if the presentation will be 15 min of footage and a one-minute intro, or something different.) The Avatar trailer will also hit theatres that day, but the IMAX presentation obviously offers a better look at the visual fireworks Cameron has assembled for his first narrative feature in twelve years.

http://www.slashfilm.com/2009/08/12/avatar-day-showtime-and-tickets-details/

Oh and:
Fox is not paying Imax to use its theaters for the preview, though the studio is bearing the cost of producing and distributing the digital prints. Imax will provide 3-D glasses.

Been a while since we had a report on how much the budget ballooned. At least its not nearly as high as people projected earlier, which was just ridiculous.
The unprecedented promotion -- which includes more than 30 Imax 3-D screens overseas -- signals just how much Fox has riding on its massive "Avatar" investment (more than $240 million in production costs) and how Imax is trying to position its theaters as the destination for the highly anticipated movie.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/ent...round-with-free-avatar-preview-next-week.html
 
Wow, 70 whole screens in the US.

DMczaf said:
This really does feel like Fox and Cameron came up with this 15 mins before Comic Con :lol
Definitely. This wasn't thought through at all.
 
Hmm I wonder how it'll be in all the other countries. If the tickets are distributed by the internet I'm obviously not getting one since there's ALWAYS someone faster :(
 
-TRN- said:
Hmm I wonder how it'll be in all the other countries. If the tickets are distributed by the internet I'm obviously not getting one since there's ALWAYS someone faster :(

Aside from UK and Australia, right now we don't even know if any other country outside the US even wants to participate in this. :P
 
duckroll said:
Aside from UK and Australia, right now we don't even know if any other country outside the US even wants to participate in this. :P

It's kinda confirmed here in Brazil, there was already a press release for it after Comic Con but no news since.
 
whats happening with the IMAX screenings in Australia? so far i only got the email from Village about entering the competition to get tickets for the 3D screenings......what can you write in 25 words :/
 
jey_16 said:
here in Australia, you have to write 25 words on how Avatar will revolutionise film making forever to get a ticket, :lol: its a competition ......and that just for a 3D screening, no idea on whats happening with the IMAX screenings

Actually its 25 words of what your favourite Cameron movie is and why. But you just post whatever lets you get your kicks.

Caught you before edit.
 
LA Times said:
But it's unprecedented for a studio to show an extended excerpt of a film in such a broad public setting months before it hits theaters.
Umm, The Dark Knight prologue in front of all IMAX screenings of I Am Legend?
 
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