Hollywood Case Study - Avatar

Avatar - directed/written/produced by James Cameron (2009)

Pre Production and Production:

• Budget of film: $237,000,000 (others estimated the cost at $280–310 million to produce and $150 million for marketing)
• The gross revenue is $1, 424,222,266 (Avatar's worldwide gross was an estimated $232,180,000 after three days)
• Stars in the film had a $50million salary
• On its opening weekend it grossed $77 million domestically and $232 million worldwide. Within three weeks of its release, with a worldwide gross of over $1 billion, Avatar became the second highest-grossing film of all time worldwide, exceeded only by Cameron's previous film, Titanic.
• Director James Cameron had a salary of $8million, which he forfeited most of (along with most of his share of the gross percentage) to finance the films production.
• Production companies involved: Lightstorm Entertainment
• The genres are action, adventure and sci-fi. All very popular, so was the 3D (IMAX) theme. This helped with the ticket sales and the profit made.
• Length of shooting schedule was around 2 years.
• The music at the end of the film, " I see you", was performed by Leona Lewis. She is known worldwide and is very popular. She also has a great voice that suits the genre of the film.
• The film was so expensive to produce because it was nearly all CGI. The special effects and CGI are what made the film, they are so well done. This is because Cameron wanted to wait to finish the film until "technology had caught up with his vision of how it should look". He started writing Avatar in 1994 with an 80 page script, after the completion of Titanic, which would have been finished and released in 1999. But because Cameron wanted to wait for more IMAX cinemas to become available worldwide, he put off filming until 2006 when he began to write the script, as well as develop the language and culture of the Na’vi. As the film was so successful, Cameron is planning a sequel.
• He did not think that technology was developed enough at this time to create his vision of the film, which is why he put off filming.
• The film was always going to be in 3D, this is why Cameron spent so long working on the production of it and wouldn't start filming until IMAX cinemas were available to people worldwide, also he wanted 3D technology to be developed enough to create his vision of the film.
• The film looks very glossy ans slick, we can see this from the poster of a close up of one of the Na'vi characters faces. It allows the audience to see the wealth of detail in the special effects and CGI. This promotes the film as viewers can see how realistic they look.
• The narrative of the film and the characters in it are quite simple. The audience do not leave the cinema after watching it and think " I didn't understand any of that". The plot is quite easy to understand, which makes it appeal to a wider audience.
• News Corp, whose 20th Century Fox film studio backed James Cameron's blockbuster, posted profits of £159m for the second quarter.
• The costs to the rights of the source is $500million.
• Formal excess - the use of 3D and special effects makes the film very over the top, but this is what makes it so appealing to an audience and attarcts them to watch it. The set design is also very over the top, as is the cinematography, this is all to show off.
• The cast of the film aren’t very well known. This is because A-listers’ are no longer being hired for big Hollywood movies as they cost too much to use for a role. Producers have resorted to using unknown actors in order to use more money on the production of the film.

Distribution:

• The distribution company for Avatar is 20th Century Fox.
• Around $150million was spent on distributing and marketing the film through posters, soundtrack CD's, t-shirts, action figures etc.
• The marketing for Avatar has been going on since August 2009.
• The film got most of its publicity from the advertisments of posters and bus banners. There wasn't many big stars in the film so its popularity relied on the use of CGI and special effects (which were shown on the posters). The fact that is was directed by James Cameron also attracted an audience, as he was already a well known director, who was famous for his films such as Titanic.
• To promote the film, loads of merchandise was made, for example; t-shirts, posters, CD soundtracks, books, video games, and action figures (which were released before christmas to give extra time to make a bigger profit, as the younger audience would want them as presents).
• Also, McDonalds had a period of time where they included a free Avatar action figure in every Happy Meal. McDonalds is a very popular fast food outlet so this promoted the film to the public.

Exhibition:

• The release date for Avatar was 18th December 2009 in the United States, and 10th December 2009 was the London premiere.
• On its opening weekend it was shown in a total of 261 theatres, and the box office took $27million.
• Internationally, Avatar opened on a total of 14,604 screens in 106 territories. 3671 of these were showing the film in 3D (producing 56% of the opening weekends gross).
• Avatar earned $3,537,000 just from midnight screenings.
• It's worldwide gross was estimated at $232,180,000 after five days, the ninth largest opening weekend gross of all time.
• Avatar has been on release in cinemas (to the public) since 18th December, which to date is almost 8 weeks, and it is still screening.
• Avatar is currently the second best movie of all time, but has not yet beaten Cameron's famous Titanic which remains at number one.
• Avatar is the widest IMAX release to date, as it opened in a total of 261 theatres internationally, and a total of 3422 worldwide.
• Currently, Avatar has sold $75million worth of tickets.