Visual effects
Cameron pioneered a specially designed camera built into a 6-inch boom that allowed the facial expressions of the actors to be captured and digitally recorded for the animators to use later.[106]
A number of innovative visual effects techniques were used during production. According to Cameron, work on the film had been delayed since the 1990s to allow the techniques to reach the necessary degree of advancement to adequately portray his vision of the film.[15][16] The director planned to make use of photorealistic computer-generated characters, created using new motion capture animation technologies he had been developing in the 14 months leading up to December 2006.[101]
Innovations include a new system for lighting massive areas like Pandora's jungle,[107] a motion-capture stage or "volume" six times larger than any previously used, and an improved method of capturing facial expressions, enabling full performance capture. To achieve the face capturing, actors wore individually made skull caps fitted with a tiny camera positioned in front of the actors' faces; the information collected about their facial expressions and eyes is then transmitted to computers.[108] According to Cameron, the method allows the filmmakers to transfer 100% of the actors' physical performances to their digital counterparts.[109] Besides the performance capture data which were transferred directly to the computers, numerous reference cameras gave the digital artists multiple angles of each performance.[110] A technically challenging scene was near the end of the film when the computer-generated Neytiri held the live action Jake in human form, and attention was given to the details of the shadows and reflected light between them.[111]
The lead visual effects company was Weta Digital in Wellington, at one point employing 900 people to work on the film.[112] Because of the huge amount of data which needed to be stored, cataloged and available for everybody involved, even on the other side of the world, a new cloud computing and Digital Asset Management (DAM) system named Gaia was created by Microsoft especially for Avatar, which allowed the crews to keep track of and coordinate all stages in the digital processing.[113] To render Avatar, Weta used a 930 m2 (10,000 sq ft) server farm making use of 4,000 Hewlett-Packard servers with 35,000 processor cores with 104 terabytes of RAM and three petabytes of network area storage running Ubuntu Linux, Grid Engine cluster manager, and 2 of the animation software and managers, Pixar's RenderMan and Pixar's Alfred queue management system.[114][115][116][117] The render farm occupies the 193rd to 197th spots in the TOP500 list of the world's most powerful supercomputers. A new texturing and paint software system, called Mari, was developed by The Foundry in cooperation with Weta.[118][119] Creating the Na'vi characters and the virtual world of Pandora required over a petabyte of digital storage,[120] and each minute of the final footage for Avatar occupies 17.28 gigabytes of storage.[121] It would often take the computer several hours to render a single frame of the film.[122] To help finish preparing the special effects sequences on time, a number of other companies were brought on board, including Industrial Light & Magic, which worked alongside Weta Digital to create the battle sequences. ILM was responsible for the visual effects for many of the film's specialized vehicles and devised a new way to make CGI explosions.[123] Joe Letteri was the film's visual effects general supervisor.[124]
Music and soundtrack
Main article: Avatar: Music from the Motion Picture
 | James Horner – "Jake Enters His Avatar World" (0:31)MENU0:00listen to a clip from the score of the 2009 film Avatar. |
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Composer James Horner scored the film, his third collaboration with Cameron after Aliens and Titanic.[125] Horner recorded parts of the score with a small chorus singing in the alien language Na'vi in March 2008.[126] He also worked with Wanda Bryant, an ethnomusicologist, to create a music culture for the alien race.[127] The first scoring sessions were planned to take place in early 2009.[128] During production, Horner promised Cameron that he would not work on any other project except for Avatar and reportedly worked on the score from four in the morning until ten at night throughout the process. He stated in an interview, "Avatar has been the most difficult film I have worked on and the biggest job I have undertaken."[129] Horner composed the score as two different scores merged into one. He first created a score that reflected the Na'vi way of sound and then combined it with a separate "traditional" score to drive the film.[99] British singer Leona Lewis was chosen to sing the theme song for the film, called "I See You". An accompanying music video, directed by Jake Nava, premiered December 15, 2009, on MySpace.[130]
Marketing
Promotions
Cameron at the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con promoting the film
The first photo of the film was released on August 14, 2009,[131] and Empire released exclusive images from the film in its October issue.[132] Cameron, producer Jon Landau, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, and Sigourney Weaver appeared at a panel, moderated by Tom Rothman, at the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con on July 23. Twenty-five minutes of footage was screened[133] in Dolby 3D.[134] Weaver and Cameron appeared at additional panels to promote the film, speaking on the 23rd[135] and 24th[136][137] respectively. James Cameron announced at the Comic-Con Avatar Panel that August 21 will be 'Avatar Day'. On this day, the trailer was released in all theatrical formats. The official game trailer and toy line of the film were also unveiled on this day.[138]
The 129-second trailer was released online on August 20, 2009.[139] The new 210-second trailer was premiered in theaters on October 23, 2009, then soon after premiered online on Yahoo! on October 29, 2009, to positive reviews.[140][141] An extended version in IMAX 3D received overwhelmingly positive reviews.[139] The Hollywood Reporter said that audience expectations were colored by "the [same] establishment skepticism that preceded Titanic" and suggested the showing reflected the desire for original storytelling.[142] The teaser has been among the most viewed trailers in the history of film marketing, reaching the first place of all trailers viewed on Apple.com with 4 million views.[143] On October 30, to celebrate the opening of the first 3-D cinema in Vietnam, Fox allowed Megastar Cinema to screen exclusive 16 minutes of Avatar to a number of press.[144] The three-and-a-half-minute trailer of the film premiered live on November 1, 2009, during a Dallas Cowboys football game at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, on the Diamond Vision screen, one of the world's largest video displays, and to TV audiences viewing the game on Fox. It is said to be the largest live motion picture trailer viewing in history.[145]
The Coca-Cola Company collaborated with Fox to launch a worldwide marketing campaign to promote the film. The highlight of the campaign was the website AVTR.com. Specially marked bottles and cans of Coca-Cola Zero, when held in front of a webcam, enabled users to interact with the website's 3-D features using augmented reality (AR) technology.[146] The film was heavily promoted in an episode of the Fox Network series Bones in the episode "The Gamer In The Grease" (Season 5, Episode 9). Avatar star Joel David Moore has a recurring role on the program, and is seen in the episode anxiously awaiting the release of the film.[147] A week prior to the American release, Zoe Saldana promoted the film on Adult Swim when she was interviewed by an animated Space Ghost.[148] McDonald's had a promotion mentioned in television commercials in Europe called "Avatarize yourself", which encouraged people to go to the website set up by Oddcast, and use a photograph of themselves to change into a Na'vi.[149]
Books
Avatar: A Confidential Report on the Biological and Social History of Pandora, a 224-page book in the form of a field guide to the film's fictional setting of the planet of Pandora, was released by Harper Entertainment on November 24, 2009.[150] It is presented as a compilation of data collected by the humans about Pandora and the life on it, written by Maria Wilhelm and Dirk Mathison. HarperFestival also released Wilhelm's 48-page James Cameron's Avatar: The Reusable Scrapbook for children.[151] The Art of Avatar was released on November 30, 2009, by Abrams Books. The book features detailed production artwork from the film, including production sketches, illustrations by Lisa Fitzpatrick, and film stills. Producer Jon Landau wrote the foreword, Cameron wrote the epilogue, and director Peter Jackson wrote the preface.[152] In October 2010, Abrams Books also released The Making of Avatar, a 272-page book that detailed the film's production process and contains over 500 color photographs and illustrations.[153]
In a 2009 interview, Cameron said that he planned to write a novel version of Avatar after the film was released.[154] In February 2010, producer Jon Landau stated that Cameron plans a prequel novel for Avatar that will "lead up to telling the story of the movie, but it would go into much more depth about all the stories that we didn't have time to deal with", saying that "Jim wants to write a novel that is a big, epic story that fills in a lot of things".[155] In August 2013 it was announced that Cameron hired Steven Gould to pen four standalone novels to expand the Avatar universe.[156]
Video game
Main articles: James Cameron's Avatar: The Game and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora
Cameron chose Ubisoft Montreal to create an Avatar game for the film in 2007. The filmmakers and game developers collaborated heavily, and Cameron decided to include some of Ubisoft's vehicle and creature designs in the film.[157] James Cameron's Avatar: The Game was released on December 1, 2009,[158] for most home video game consoles (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, Nintendo DS, iPhone) and Microsoft Windows, and December 8 for PlayStation Portable. A second game Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora was under development as of 2021.
Action figures and postage stamps
Mattel Toys announced in December 2009 that it would be introducing a line of Avatar action figures.[159][160] Each action figure will be made with a 3-D web tag, called an i-TAG, that consumers can scan using a web cam, revealing unique on-screen content that is exclusive to each specific action figure.[159] A series of toys representing six different characters from the film were also distributed globally in McDonald's Happy Meals.[161][162]
In December 2009, France Post released a special limited edition stamp based on Avatar, coinciding with the film's worldwide release.[163]
Release and reception
Initial screening
Avatar premiered in London on December 10, 2009, and was released theatrically worldwide from December 16 to 18.[164] The film was originally set for release on May 22, 2009, during filming,[165] but was pushed back to allow more post-production time (the last shots were delivered in November),[107] and to give more time for theaters worldwide to install 3D projectors.[166] Cameron stated that the film's aspect ratio would be 1.78:1 for 3D screenings and that a 2.39:1 image would be extracted for 2D screenings.[167][168] However, a 3D 2.39:1 extract was approved for use with constant-image-height screens (i.e. screens which increase in width to display 2.39:1 films).[169] During a 3D preview showing in Germany on December 16, the movie's DRM 'protection' system failed, and some copies delivered could not be watched at all in the theaters. The problems were fixed in time for the public premiere.[170] Avatar was released in a total of 3,457 theaters in the US, of which 2,032 theaters ran it in 3D. In total 90% of all advance ticket sales for Avatar were for 3D screenings.[171]
Internationally, Avatar opened on a total of 14,604 screens in 106 territories, of which 3,671 were showing the film in 3D (producing 56% of the first weekend gross).[172][173] The film was simultaneously presented in IMAX 3D format, opening in 178 theaters in the United States on December 18. The international IMAX release included 58 theaters beginning on December 16, and 25 more theaters were to be added in the coming weeks.[174] The IMAX release was the company's widest to date, a total of 261 theaters worldwide. The previous IMAX record opening was Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which opened in 161 IMAX theaters in the US, and about 70 international.[175] 20th Century Fox Korea adapted and later released Avatar in 4D version, which included "moving seats, smells of explosives, sprinkling water, laser lights and wind".[22]
Box office
General
Main article: List of box office records set by Avatar
Avatar was released internationally on more than 14,000 screens.[176] It earned $3,537,000 from midnight screenings domestically (United States and Canada), with the initial 3D release limited to 2,200 screens.[177] The film earned $26,752,099 on its opening day, and $77,025,481 over its opening weekend, making it the second-largest December opening ever behind I Am Legend,[24][6] the largest domestic opening weekend for a film not based on a franchise (topping The Incredibles), the highest opening weekend for a film entirely in 3D (breaking Up's record),[178] the highest opening weekend for an environmentalist film (breaking The Day After Tomorrow's record),[179] and the 40th largest opening weekend in North America,[6] despite a blizzard that blanketed the East Coast of the United States and reportedly hurt its opening weekend results.[19][24][25] The film also set an IMAX opening weekend record, with 178 theaters generating approximately $9.5 million, 12% of the film's $77 million (at the time) North American gross on less than 3% of the screens.[174]
International markets generating opening weekend tallies of at least $10 million were for Russia ($19.7 million), France ($17.4 million), the UK ($13.8 million), Germany ($13.3 million), South Korea ($11.7 million), Australia ($11.5 million), and Spain ($11.0 million).[6] Avatar's worldwide gross was US$241.6 million after five days, the ninth largest opening-weekend gross of all time, and the largest for a non-franchise, non-sequel and original film.[180] 58 international IMAX screens generated an estimated $4.1 million during the opening weekend.[174]
Revenues in the film's second weekend decreased by only 1.8% in domestic markets, marking a rare occurrence,[181] earning $75,617,183, to remain in first place at the box office[182] and recording what was then the biggest second weekend of all time.[183] The film experienced another marginal decrease in revenue in its third weekend, dropping 9.4% to $68,490,688 domestically, remaining in first place at the box office,[184] to set a third-weekend record.[185]
Avatar crossed the $1 billion mark on the 19th day of its international release, making it the first film to reach this mark in only 19 days.[186] It became the fifth film grossing more than $1 billion worldwide, and the only film of 2009 to do so.[187] In its fourth weekend, Avatar continued to lead the box office domestically, setting a new all-time fourth-weekend record of $50,306,217,[188] and becoming the highest-grossing 2009 release in the United States.[189] In the film's fifth weekend, it set the Martin Luther King Day weekend record, grossing $54,401,446,[190] and set a fifth-weekend record with a take of $42,785,612.[191] It held the top spot to set the sixth and seventh weekend records earning $34,944,081[192] and $31,280,029[193] respectively. It was the fastest film to gross $600 million domestically, on its 47th day in theaters.[194]
On January 31, it became the first film to earn over $2 billion worldwide,[195] and it became the first film to gross over $700 million in the U.S. and Canada, on February 27, after 72 days of release.[196] It remained at number one at the domestic box office for seven consecutive weeks – the most consecutive No. 1 weekends since Titanic spent 15 weekends at No.1 in 1997 and 1998[197] – and also spent 11 consecutive weekends at the top of the box office outside the United States and Canada, breaking the record of nine consecutive weekends set by Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.[198] By the end of its first theatrical release Avatar had grossed $749,766,139 in the U.S. and Canada, and $1,999,298,189 in other territories, for a worldwide total of $2,749,064,328.[6]
Including the revenue from a re-release of Avatar featuring extended footage, Avatar grossed $760,507,625 in the U.S. and Canada, and $2,029,172,169 in other countries for a worldwide total of $2,789,679,794.[6] Avatar has set a number of box office records during its release: on January 25, 2010, it surpassed Titanic's worldwide gross to become the highest-grossing film of all time worldwide 41 days after its international release,[199][200][201] just two days after taking the foreign box office record.[202] On February 2, 47 days after its domestic release, Avatar surpassed Titanic to become the highest-grossing film of all time in Canada and the United States.[203] It became the highest-grossing film of all time in at least 30 other countries[204][205][206][207][208][209] and is the first film to earn over $2 billion in foreign box office receipts.[27] IMAX ticket sales account for $243.3 million of its worldwide gross,[210] more than double the previous record.[211]
Box Office Mojo estimates that after adjusting for the rise in average ticket prices, Avatar would be the 14th-highest-grossing film of all time in North America.[212] Box Office Mojo also observes that the higher ticket prices for 3D and IMAX screenings have had a significant impact on Avatar's gross; it estimated, on April 21, 2010, that Avatar had sold approximately 75 million tickets in North American theaters, more than any other film since 1999's Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.[213] On a worldwide basis, when Avatar's gross stood at $2 billion just 35 days into its run, The Daily Telegraph estimated its gross was surpassed by only Gone with the Wind ($3.0 billion), Titanic ($2.9 billion), and Star Wars ($2.2 billion) after adjusting for inflation to 2010 prices,[214] with Avatar ultimately winding up with $2.8 billion after subsequent re-releases.[6] Reuters even placed it ahead of Titanic after adjusting the global total for inflation.[215] The 2015 edition of Guinness World Records lists Avatar only behind Gone with the Wind in terms of adjusted grosses worldwide.[216][217]
Commercial analysis
Before its release, various film critics and fan communities predicted the film would be a significant disappointment at the box office, in line with predictions made for Cameron's previous blockbuster Titanic.[218][219][220] This criticism ranged from Avatar's film budget, to its concept and use of 3-D "blue cat people".[218][219] Slate magazine's Daniel Engber complimented the 3D effects, but criticized them for reminding him of certain CGI characters from the Star Wars prequel films and for having the "uncanny valley" effect.[221] The New York Times noted that 20th Century Fox executives had decided to release Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel alongside Avatar, calling it a "secret weapon" to cover any unforeseeable losses at the box office.[222]
"I think if everybody was embracing the film before the fact, the film could never live up to that expectation ... Have them go with some sense of wanting to find the answer."
James Cameron on criticism of Avatar before its release.[219]
Box office analysts, on the other hand, estimated that the film would be a box office success.[218][223] "The holy grail of 3-D has finally arrived," said an analyst for Exhibitor Relations. "This is why all these 3-D venues were built: for Avatar. This is the one. The behemoth."[223] The "cautionary estimate" was that Avatar would bring in around $60 million in its opening weekend. Others guessed higher.[223][224] There were also analysts who believed that the film's three-dimensionality would help its box office performance, given that recent 3D films had been successful.[218]
Cameron said he felt the pressure of the predictions, but that pressure is good for film-makers. "It makes us think about our audiences and what the audience wants," he stated. "We owe them a good time. We owe them a piece of good entertainment."[219] Although he felt Avatar would appeal to everyone and that the film could not afford to have a target demographic,[219] he especially wanted hard-core science-fiction fans to see it: "If I can just get 'em in the damn theater, the film will act on them in the way it's supposed to, in terms of taking them on an amazing journey and giving them this rich emotional experience."[225] Cameron was aware of the sentiment that Avatar would need significant "repeat business" just to make up for its budget and achieve box office success, and believed Avatar could inspire the same "sharing" reaction as Titanic. He said that film worked because, "When people have an experience that's very powerful in the movie theatre, they want to go share it. They want to grab their friend and bring them, so that they can enjoy it. They want to be the person to bring them the news that this is something worth having in their life."[219]
After the film's release and unusually strong box office performance over its first two weeks, it was debated as the one film capable of surpassing Titanic's worldwide gross, and its continued strength perplexed box office analysts.[226] Other films in recent years had been cited as contenders for surpassing Titanic, such as 2008's The Dark Knight,[227] but Avatar was considered the first film with a genuine chance to do so, and its numbers being aided by higher ticket prices for 3D screenings[226] did not fully explain its success to box office analysts. "Most films are considered to be healthy if they manage anything less than a 50% drop from their first weekend to their second. Dipping just 11% from the first to the third is unheard of," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office analysis for Hollywood.com. "This is just unprecedented. I had to do a double take. I thought it was a miscalculation."[181] Analysts predicted second place for the film's worldwide gross, but most were uncertain about it surpassing Titanic because "Today's films flame out much faster than they did when Titanic was released."[181] Brandon Gray, president of Box Office Mojo, believed in the film's chances of becoming the highest-grossing film of all time, though he also believed it was too early to surmise because it had only played during the holidays. He said, "While Avatar may beat Titanic's record, it will be tough, and the film is unlikely to surpass Titanic in attendance. Ticket prices were about $3 cheaper in the late 1990s."[181] Cameron said he did not think it was realistic to "try to topple Titanic off its perch" because it "just struck some kind of chord" and there had been other good films in recent years.[228] He changed his prediction by mid-January. "It's gonna happen. It's just a matter of time," he said.[229]
"You've got to compete head on with these other epic works of fantasy and fiction, the Tolkiens and the Star Wars and the Star Treks. People want a persistent alternate reality to invest themselves in and they want the detail that makes it rich and worth their time. They want to live somewhere else. Like Pandora."