Avatar: An Introduction

Abstract

Like Titanic (James Cameron, 1997), Avatar (James Cameron, 2009) is a film surrounded by records of various kinds: the biggest budget film ever made; the highest box office gross of all time; record revenues upon first release (US$3.5 million in the USA); the highest number of DVDs and Blu-Rays sold (2.5 million DVDs and 1.5 million Blu-Rays were sold on Earth Day (22 April 2010), a date chosen to coincide with the film’s putative bent towards ecology, eventually reaching sales of 10 million DVDs and/or Blu-Rays in the USA alone); massive worldwide releases of 3,500 screens in the USA, and 14,000 screens worldwide (approximately 10% of all cinema screens on the planet); and winner of three Oscars (in cinematography, art direction and visual effects). Yet the film’s significance lies in more than its numbers. It is also, for instance, a high-profile example of contemporary Hollywood’s ‘globalized’ industrial practice. Shot in the USA and New Zealand, Avatar is an international co-production involving the Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, Lightstorm Entertainment and Dune Entertainment from the USA, and the Ingenious Film Partners from the UK, with Fox itself being a trans/multinational corporation with interests in a huge range of markets and regions. The talent involved includes a Canadian director (Cameron), an Australian leading actor (Sam Worthington), and a familiar and ethnically-diverse supporting cast, including Sigourney Weaver (one of Cameron’s best-known star actresses) alongside Giovanni Ribisi, Michelle Rodriguez and others. Furthermore, Avatar required work from numerous digital effects companies across the world, such as the USA (Industrial Light and Magic), New Zealand (Weta Digital), the UK (Framestore), Canada (Hybride Technologies) and France (BUF). Finally, Avatar premiered not in the USA, but in London, UK, on 10 December 2009, demonstrating again the filmmakers’ acknowledgement of the global market for Hollywood products. The box office figures – an impressive US$760 million in the USA, only to be overtaken by the US$2 billion it took elsewhere – likewise exemplifies the nature of the film as a product of ‘global Hollywood’. The film is also an interesting example of ‘blockbuster’ promotion and release strategies. Avatar had been gaining media attention since 1994, although it did not get made earlier because the technology had to reach a stage sufficient to manifest the ‘vision’ James Cameron had for the film. As such, Avatar was widely promoted as a ‘return’ narrative on the part of its director (Cameron’s ‘return’ to filmmaking after a decade of underwater documentaries and the like), as well as a