Avatar Sails Past Titanic Amid Talk of Sequel, Acting Snubs

Thursday, February 04, 2010
By: Thomas J. Mclean

As Avatar officially claims the domestic box office crown from Titanic, Fox is in talks with director James Cameron on a sequel.

The 3D sci-fi fantasy movie finally sailed past Cameron’s previous fiction feature on Wednesday, bringing its total to an estimated $601.1 million. That edges Avatar past Titanic’s $600.8 million, with plenty of life still in its theatrical run.

The sequel talks are in very preliminary stages, according to The Hollywood Reporter, with Rupert Murdoch, head of Fox parent company News Corp., telling investors in a conference call that both sides want a sequel but nobody knows yet how quickly the project might come together.

Murdoch also said the film will be out on a 2D DVD or Blu-ray before June 30, with a 3D release possible down the road once the picture for home 3D technology has clarified.

In other Avatar news, producer Jon Landau and Cameron both expressed to The Reporter their disappointment that none of the film’s actors were nominated for an Oscar.

"People confuse what we have done with animation," Cameron told the trade publication at the recent PGA Awards. "It's nothing like animation. The creator here is the actor, not the unseen hand of an animator."

“I blame ourselves for not educating people in the right way,” said Landau, who suggested describing the motion capture process as more like "emotion capture."

Reader Comments

• Scotty A :

  Thursday, February 04, 2010

  What a dink.

• Arn Sweatman : Sparkle FX :

  Thursday, February 04, 2010

  Pffft! Animators and their grubby, Frito-covered (unseen) hands.
  
  btw - the performance by the big red lizard was amazing. He got robbed.

• Anonymous :

  Thursday, February 04, 2010

  Cameron is so damn full of himself. I wish he would just die already.

• S.T S. :

  Thursday, February 04, 2010

  I really think that Avatar was done really well. The GFX were amazing, the sound was fantastic, and the storyboard was done so well, that you would think that you were in it. (or that could have been the 3-D IMAX effect) But In all it was a really good movie, I would just hate to see it destroyed with a sequel. Because as everyone knows: The first ones good, and after that it all goes downhill.
  But I do give Cameron credit for creating such an wonderful project.

• Harold Zabady : Artist and Illustrator : Neon Asparagus Inc.

  Thursday, February 04, 2010

  Avatar is a technical masterpiece.Mr. Cameron should take a look at the novel \"Dinosaur Summer\".This novel would adapt well into the 3d genre.

• Anonymous :

  Friday, February 05, 2010

  i mean you guys can complain all you want in your mothers basements but the simple fact is that he has made the 2 most successful movies of all time and he has more money than you and your whole family. so WHAT HAVE YOU DONE LATELY?

• Steve Broome : Graphic Artist : coalminds.com

  Saturday, February 06, 2010

  Pretty amazing that people will complain so much about something creative and daring - including a love story with 12 foot tall blue aliens with weird noses. The story itself was basic and straightforward but the storytelling and action were outstanding as usual from Cameron. But by all means, he\\\'s a dink for actually doing something he wanted to with complete creative control. What a loser, right?

• Juliet :

  Saturday, February 06, 2010

  I\'m sorry I thought that in order for an actor to be nominated for an Oscar they had to be the BEST. Apparently the movie James Cameron directed and I saw were two entirely different things. Congratulations Academy! You did something right.

• shakeem winn : artist n writer : winn ltd.

  Friday, February 12, 2010

  I think it\'s pathetic that people always equate money with success. The truth is Avatar is an abysmal failure. It\'s a step backwards in the wrong direction for Holly wood. The racist content in the film proves that the industry hasn\'t changed a bit in it\'s misconception\'s of minorities and it\'s delusions of white superiority.