It's funny because Cameron and Avatar are definitely inspired by anime. It's just not as obvious as Pacific Rim. And no shade to Pacific Rim, that movie's great
But seriously, if you are going to try to use box office results for cultural impact, maybe include a map?
Avatar's worldwide box office supports the argument that it hasn't really made as big a dent in the West as one might think from the billions.
The top grossing animated movie in history (not inflation adjusted) has had even less impact on the west. Most people on English reddit can't even name Ne Zha 2.
If you are going to have the discussion based on numbers. Have it. Don't leave out the context and pretend like pure gross box office is case in point.
Box office wise Avatar 1 and 2 are the 4th and 7th biggest box office movies domestically. Only behind Marvel and a Star Wars, which are massive in the US.
Ne Zha 2 wouldn't be in the top 10,000 domestically.
it’s perfectly fine to not look forward to a movie, just like it’s fine to not like/dislike a movie regardless of greater general opinion. But Avatar seems to get under people’s skin around here for some odd reason
Not saying that’s the case for you, even I’m ambivalent towards the movie. But I can’t imagine getting upset over the existence of a movie that I still have the choice of seeing or not seeing. Some people in this thread act like James Cameron broke into their house and painted everything blue
I was interested in the first one and watched it, liked some aspects of it but overall found it to be not very good. Only cared enough about the second one to try to watch it at home when it hit streaming platforms, but I only made it about half way through it before I got so bored I stopped watching. I don’t care at all about what the third one gets up to, so I doubt I’ll ever even try to watch it. In my experience, I’ve run into far more people that get upset that I don’t care about the Avatar movies than I have people who get upset about the movies themselves.
people who get upset at others for not sharing the same opinions are annoying as hell. Just makes me think of the Sack Lunch/English Patient scenario in Seinfeld
You mean just like any other movies nowadays? 2nd one is not talked about but it still holds as the 3rd highest grossing film of all time. That’s something.
The only reason people feel like it's "not talked about" is becasuse they are comparing it to the cultural impact of movies that have had tons more installments in their series or to movies that came out at a very different time in Hollywood. Like Star Wars.
Star Wars was a cultural powerhouse because it was very unique at the time. I'm not saying it was on the whole original, obviously it draws a lot of inspiration from other works and was an attempt to modernize older scifi serials like Flash Gordon, but it had the right combination of factors alongside toys at a time when there just weren't a lot of franchises like that.
Avatar came out in 2009. Hell it came out the year after the birth of the MCU and The Dark Knight. Not only did a ton of pretenders to the Star Wars throne come out before it, but STAR WARS had a release a few years before it and another release a few years after.
So if you're comparing it to Star Wars, duh, of course it didn't have the massive cultural impact, but then, it's pretty much impossible for it to have that kind of impact. It's competing against Star Wars, after all. AND the MCU.
In 3 years time, with more sequels available, I think we're gonna start seeing Avatar get a lot more attention.
If you think about it, very few successful movies have had some sort of cultural impact in the last few years. I remember "Parasite" being a HUGE thing when it came out, but culturally, there's no footprint... no jokes, one-liners, scenes that are copied by other movies, references, or anything like that. It's kinda weird. And is the same with all Oscar-winning movies of the last 10 years.
It's because the cultural impact point is completely hollow. Not only is it untrue (billions grossed and starting a trend of 3D movies IS a cultural impact), but it's also pointless. When they say "cultural impact" they mean "it doesn't have a Star Wars level fanbase" but the reality is that that's not important. Fan base size isn't equate to quality. It's a complete non-argument people use because they think it makes them sound smart.
I’ve made random jokes about things being a dream within a dream and I doubt I’m the only one so I’m not sure if that’s the best example. The whole cultural impact argument for avatar is dumb though I agree.
Really? Never seen any lasting cultural impact from that movie other than memes around the same time it was on Teathers, which is fairly common. I honestly think is more related to the fact that movies are not the main hobby anymore. like back in the 90s or 80s, it was probably the big thing on a Friday night, but that is not the case anymore.
Don't worry, if you look, people get just as annoying about Hero's Journey stories. Percy Jackson is greek mythology Harry Potter is British earth Star Wars is space Lord of the Rings is elven Greek mythology.
It’s funny to see how pervasive that is. People in this thread who feel positively about the first two films are having to justify it, despite the fact that the general public clearly enjoys them, as evidenced by the box office.
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u/riegspsych325 The ⊃∪⊃⪽ 1d ago
oh man, we’re heading towards “DAE think Avatar not special” season again, aren’t we?