The FINANCIAL — James Cameron’s movie Avatar has topped the North American box office, earning $73 million in opening, despite storms in the Northeast.
Disney's The Princess and the Frog slipped to second, with $12.2m (£7.6m), according to BBC. Drama The Blind Side dropped to three while the Hugh Grant and Sarah Jessica Parker romantic comedy Did You Hear About the Morgans? came in at four. The top five was rounded off by The Twilight Saga: New Moon.
The 3-D epic from Cameron, which cost $430 million to make and market, launched with a studio-estimated $232.2 million in worldwide ticket sales. It was the biggest debut ever for a movie that wasn't a sequel, Los Angeles Times informs. In the U.S. and Canada, bad weather limited the haul for the film to a solid but far from spectacular $73 million.
The same source reports that depressed attendance in the snowy Northeast and mid-Atlantic region Saturday probably kept it from beating the December record of $77.2 million set by "I Am Legend" two years ago.
"Avatar" edged ahead of 2006's "The Da Vinci Code" ($232.1 million) among worldwide openings, while the disaster picture "2012" slipped to No. 11 with $230.5 million, Reuters informs. If the number is confirmed when final data are issued on Monday, "Avatar" will set a new opening record for a nonsequel.
According to the same source, the record for a worldwide opening is $394 million, set in July by "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince." The "Avatar" opening also fell far short of the $275 million opening for "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" last month.
One of the reasons this multi-starrer movie is raking in millions is due to its “3-D effects”. The highly advanced special effects given by Cameron and his team are mind-blowing, The Money Times reports. The 3-D is also beneficial for the theatres as they can charge extra for the special effects.
However, it was not an altogether 3-D experience everywhere, the same source informs. According to Fox co-Chairman Jim Gianopulos, “It was not a 3-D phenomenon everywhere, but in the places where theaters were available, it overwhelmingly leaned that way." But with the movie’s current momentum, Fox and its financing partners Dune Entertainment and Ingenious Film Partners could come to profitability more quickly than anticipated.
"Avatar" garnered almost as much attention for its reported budget of at least $300 million as for its eco-friendly tale of a disabled ex-Marine sent from Earth to infiltrate an alien race of 10-foot (3 metre)-tall blue people in order to save his polluted planet, according to Reuters. Inter-species romance ensues between computerized characters representing actors Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana.
It marks Cameron's first dramatic feature since 1997's "Titanic," the biggest film of all time before accounting for inflation. He spent the intervening years waiting for moviemaking technology to catch up with his vision for the followup. Production took two years, the same source reports. His new film won breathless reviews from critics. "You've never experienced anything like it, and neither has anyone else," said the Los Angeles Times.
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