Looking forward to the stars, hoping for the moon, the North American film market has finally ushered in a big savior. Produced by Disney Pictures, co-produced by 20th Century Pictures and Light Storm Entertainment, and directed by James Cameron, "Avatar: The Way of Water" was released in 4202 theaters and is a veritable highlight of this year's Christmas file and even the entire year.
"Avatar: The Way of Water" poster
"Avatar: The Way of Water" still has room for improvement at the subsequent box office
"Avatar: The Way of Water" earned $134 million at the opening box office, making the weekend's total North American box office suddenly rise to $152 million. However, the current results may not make the producer Disney feel relieved. Originally, the industry expected that the opening box office of this visual effects blockbuster could reach 150 million US dollars, which is a little regrettable in comparison. Moreover, this figure did not surpass the $187.4 million of "Doctor Strange 2" and the $181.3 million of "Black Panther 2", only ranking third in this year's opening box office list.
However, having said that, some media have been too anxious to play the title of ""Avatar: The Way of Water" Box Office Hit the Street" just because of this opening result. You know, North American audiences adhere to the habit of going out to watch movies with their families during the Christmas holidays, and the next two weeks are the key. The first "Avatar" that year, and even "Titanic" before Cameron, are slow and hot works at the box office. If "Avatar: The Way of Water" has enough stamina to create a box office miracle again, it is not completely impossible.
Recall that at the beginning, the opening box office of the first "Avatar" in 2009 was only 77 million US dollars, considering the inflation factor of ticket prices, it was also quite excellent in that year, but compared with the various box office records it eventually created - the total box office in North America was 750 million US dollars, the total global box office was 2.74 billion US dollars, and then experienced a short-term re-screening, so that its global box office has now accumulated to 2.92 billion US dollars, which is the first in the current global film history - it shows what is called full of staying power. And this is also the charm of "Avatar", relying on various word of mouth, people who do not necessarily want to watch it will eventually be unable to help but buy tickets to see, not to mention that there are a large number of audiences who have been completely conquered by it, not enough to watch once, two brushes and three brushes are not a few, and it has invisibly pushed up the total box office of "Avatar" all the way.
"Avatar: The Way of Water" director Cameron (left) set photo
Therefore, this time for the promotion of "Avatar: The Way of Water", when asked about the three-hour long film, if the audience is in a hurry, which point in time is more suitable for a short exit and will not miss the important plot, director Cameron replied confidently that you can leave the scene at any time, because this movie you will definitely want to watch a second time, the first missed plot, the second time or even the third time to make up again, there is no problem. At present, the film has a 78% film critic praise rate and 94% audience praise rate on the film review collection website "Rotten Tomatoes", compared with the 82% film critic praise rate and audience praise rate of the first film, the difference is not much.
"Avatar: The Way of Water" currently has a 78% critic rating and a 94% audience rating on "Rotten Tomatoes"
Of course, the pressure is not without it, it can even be said to be great. "Avatar: The Way of Water" is said to cost as much as 350 million US dollars, regardless of inflation, ranking behind "Pirates of the Caribbean" with $379 million, "Avengers 2" with $365 million and "Avengers 4" with $356 million, ranking fourth most expensive in film history. According to the Hollywood news outlet "Dead Line", its production cost even reached $460 million.
According to Cameron's own words, the film needs a global box office of $2 billion to recover the production cost, but if inflation is not taken into account, only five films in film history, such as "Avatar", "Titanic", "Avengers" the third and fourth films and "Star Wars: The Force Awakens", have reached this threshold. Therefore, the number of overseas box offices is extremely important.
For various reasons, the vast majority of Hollywood films have not been released in Russia and Chinese mainland, two major global film markets this year. The first "Avatar" in 2009 had a total of $116 million at the Russian box office and $203 million at the Chinese mainland box office. Thirteen years later, the second film was doomed to miss the Russian screen, and after the release of the Chinese mainland, it also encountered external factors such as the epidemic and the sudden drop in winter temperature, and the box office in the first weekend was not very ideal, only 396 million yuan. You know, when the first film was released in 2009, the total number of Chinese mainland screens was less than 5,000, and today, thirteen years later, the total number of screens in China has exceeded 80,000, plus the ticket price factor, it can be seen that such a premiere box office is really not good. However, with the recovery of the first wave of infected people after the slowdown of epidemic prevention measures, the box office of "Avatar: The Way of Water" in the mainland still has room to rise.
The overall recovery of the market cannot be achieved by one or two blockbusters alone
For Hollywood industry insiders, instead of worrying about the temporary box office gains and losses of a movie like "Avatar: The Way of Water", the situation is more serious than the overall downturn in the film market.
At the same weekend last year, relying on the $260 million box office of "Spider-Man: Homeless", the total North American box office over the three days of the weekend was $283 million, compared with $248 million in the same period in 2019 (but the average price of North American movie tickets in 2019 is much lower than it is now), in short, it is far better than the total box office of $152 million this weekend.
This year's North American box office trend has long shown that the box office explosion of one or two phenomenal blockbusters alone can no longer save the entire market. With more than a decade left in 2022, the total annual box office in North America is expected to fall between $7.5 billion and $8 billion, far lower than the $11.2 billion in 2019. Back to this time last year, Hollywood, which had previously experienced the heavy impact of the epidemic in 2020, saw the North American film market recover steadily in 2021, and was full of confidence that it would rise to a higher level in 2022, and the annual North American film box office could rise to $9 billion, but now it seems that such expectations are obviously too optimistic.
"Empire of Light" poster
Perhaps the biggest problem is the upheaval of audience tastes. Take the new film "Empire of Light," which opened in 436 theaters across North America last weekend, for example. The film is written and directed by Sam Mendes, a British director who has directed films such as "007: Skyfall" and "1917", and is about a light and shadow relationship that happened in a British seaside town in the 80s of the last century. The cast includes well-known British actors such as Olivia Coleman, Toby Jones and Colin Firth, especially the actress Coleman, who was nominated for this year's Golden Globe Awards. The director of photography of this film is also the famous Roger Deakins, some people expect that he won the Oscar with "1917" the year before last, and this time he is likely to be nominated for an Oscar again with this "Empire of Light".
However, it is such a very interesting work, which was released in 436 theaters over the weekend and received only $235,000 at the box office from American audiences, which translates to only $539 per theater. How bad is this result? Just compare the re-screening of "Elf" at the same time. That's right, it was the "Christmas Elf" that premiered in 2003, in order to welcome the upcoming Christmas file, Warner Bros. specially arranged for this old film to be released in 270 theaters, and the result was a box office of 278,000 US dollars, beating the new film "Empire of Light".
"Post-avatar depression" has swept the world again
Finally, back to "Avatar: The Way of Water", the release of the film brought out an interesting phenomenon: the so-called "post-Avatar depression" appeared on social media in Europe and the United States. Especially seeing the "sky people" in the film, their own kind, brutally hunting and killing spiritual Tukun for the so-called youth forever, it is difficult not to make people sad and indignant.
In fact, as early as 2009, when the first film was released, some viewers raised this statement. They pointed out on the Avatar Forums exclusive fan site that after watching the amazing stories of these blue-skinned giants, they felt that their lives were meaningless, and even wondered whether there was a need for humans who only knew about destroying the environment to survive. Some of them dream of becoming a member of the planet Pandora, and some even think of seeking their own short-sightedness so that they can become blue Na'vi in the next life. At that time, fans around the world gathered on the website to put forward similar views, which also attracted high media attention, so there was such a saying as "post-avatar depression".
"Avatar: The Way of Water" stills
"Yesterday I watched the movie "Avatar" for the first time in my life, and when I woke up this morning, I felt that the whole world was gray. My whole life, everything I have done, what I thought I was my purpose in life, has lost all meaning. There is no need to continue like this. The world I live in is experiencing death. In 2010, a Swedish user named Ivar Hill left such a message on the site, when he was 17 years old.
After that, under the advice of a group of friends who also suffered from so-called "post-avatar depression", Hill began to step out of the bucket room more and into the outdoors, looking for a positive life path as much as possible. More than ten years later, now he is married and has a family, and his wife is a netizen he met on the Avatar fan site. In an interview with the New York Times, Hill said that after experiencing that psychological crisis, he fell in love with outdoor activities such as camping and hiking with the advice of netizens, especially like to go to the forest to enjoy the experience of the unity of nature and man, and also began to pay attention to more positive environmental protection actions such as energy conservation and sustainable development.
Now, the Hills are waiting for the release of the second "Avatar". Will it still be as gloomy and uncomfortable as it was back then? Hill said that time has passed, he has already figured it out, and he also advised latecomers who may have the same emotions after watching the second part, may wish to embrace nature more and learn to cherish the present.