Wouldn't it be nice if, instead of devoting 3 months of time to a movie that's gonna bomb (I'm sorry- it will. What little I've heard sounds like good sci-fi, ergo...most people will avoid it) IMAX might show previous IMAX movies in rotation? Maybe give Star Trek another week or so in IMAX for those of us who couldn't make it there the first time around. One of the Spiderman films was in IMAX, and there are a bunch of others.

A movie that is going to bomb?

Heck, James Cameron's BOMBS are bigger than most other directors movies....

Bomb? Where did you get that idea? Oh yeah, I forgot, people really hated the new Star Trek flick didn't they?

Don't get me wrong- I am probably gonna love it. But no one I know outside of my scifi fan friends has heard ANYTHING about this movie, but everyone I know, genre fan or not, had heard about Star Trek. Avatar looks good. I just don't have much hope for it to make back it's production cost. That's what I mean by a bomb.

People hated Star Trek? Really? I loved it.

Don't get me wrong. I expect to LOVE it. But I don't know anybody outside of a few fellow fanboys that know anything about this movie. I knew non-fans that were aware of Star Trek for over a year.
I am just saying that this one doesn't have any established recognition in the general audience (and even non-fans know what Star Trek is), and I don't expect it to make back it's production costs. Isn't that a pretty realistic definition of a bomb?

Just back away quietly, Snow, and take the graceful defeat. *grin*

His movies are all blockbusters. No one knows it because it's not been marketed. Once the marketing machine gets into gear you better believe it will be known.

And we'll all be there watching it.

Meh, Mission Impossible IV: Star Trek was exactly what I expected. It wasn't Roddenberry Star Trek and I don't think it was that much better than Nemesis once you factor in the lazy rewriting of canon.

Well, I've certainly witnessed enough of James Cameron's successes to know what to expect. He always has pushed the drama of his characters to the forefront. Most of my favorite aspects of his movies have been the heightened character drama like when Bud takes the dive into the abyss, or Sarah Connor is revealed to have transformed herself into a fugitive merc to protect her son, or even Ripley's movement from terrified survivor to rescuing mom from hell. And Cameron's use of technology in his films isn't there just to make you oooh and aaaah - it's an enabler for the type of stories he wants to tell.

I find it odd that the scifi geeks who claim to know about AVATAR base this knowledge on their familiarity with other current films. Cameron hasn't released a movie in almost ten years? And then the pundits rarely couch their opinion purely on what James Cameron has done in the past. For example, we will say, "Oh, it's a scifi film!" as if no one else will enjoy it because its a niche audience. This isn't a film based on crazy scientist theories like wormholes or exploding suns, if anything it's ecological warfare.

When you read the interviews, the lead cast note the technology being used and also their character arcs. The tools for 3D and motion capture are being used to visualize an entirely alien planet and ecology - instead of putting in our own Earth, they're building terrain from the ground up, and populating this place with creatures that exist in an amoniated atmosphere. Unlike with Star Wars where these cgi environs were added later in post production, the director and actors can simultaneously see the CGI onscreens as they perform, allowing for nuanced performances. As for the character arcs, you can go read the actors describing how their characters fall in love with this alien planet while struggling with the efforts to stripmine it to send needed resources back to Earth. I really don't think any of us are qualified yet to summarily dismiss the film.

To date, James Cameron has not produced anything resembling a bomb since his work prior to the original Terminator film. People scoffed at the huge budget for Titanic and the film made the money back in loads. Since he's been away from the theaters for long producing documentaries, I sincerely believe that this will be a huge success (once again) due to the time and diligence Cameron has used to once again advance the technology behind the production. James Cameron films are not your typical summer or Christmas blockbusters... they are events and the public has come to realise this over the years.

I will admit there is always the chance that this film WILL bomb, but it doesn't seem likely. If the man can find boxoffice gold with that yawn fest that was THE ABYSS, then he should have no problems at all with AVATAR.

Looking forward to seeing Worthington again--hopefully with not-so-many clothes on :P

pretty funny to read this thread now (2/2010)...so much for it being a "bomb"