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Avatar director James Cameron to compete against ex- wife at Oscars
London: Avatar director James Cameron may compete against ex-wife Kathryn Bigelow at the Oscars this year
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Avatar dethroned at box office by "Dear John" (Reuters) oh
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The new romantic drama "Dear John" unexpectedly ended the seven-week reign of "Avatar" at the weekend box office in North America on Sunday, pulling in large numbers of young female moviegoers.
"Dear John" grossed an estimated $32.4 million in the three-day period since opening Friday, said distributor Screen Gems, the low-budget division of Sony Corp..
It had hoped for an opening of about $20 million on a weekend when many Americans forsake movies to watch the Super Bowl, traditionally the year's most-watched television broadcast. The football championship starts around 6:25 pm in Miami.
"Dear John" stars Channing Tatum and Amanda Seyfried as lovers whose romance is curtailed by the September 11 attacks. It is directed by Swedish filmmaker Lasse Hallstrom and based on "The Notebook," a novel by Nicholas Sparks.
Audiences for the film were 84 percent female and two-thirds were under the age of 21, Sony said.
The last romantic comedy to hit theaters was the widely panned "Leap Year" about a month ago. "The Lovely Bones," another box office disappointment, also has made a play for young women after failing to get any traction during the annual movie awards season.
"Avatar" earned $23.6 million in its eighth weekend, taking its total to $630.1 million. James Cameron's sci-fi blockbuster surpassed the $601 million haul of his 1997 release "Titanic" last Tuesday to become the biggest movie of all time in the United States and Canada.
The data are not adjusted for ticket-price inflation or for the higher cost of 3D engagements. The film was released by 20th Century Fox, a unit of News Corp..
TRAVOLTA TRIPS
John Travolta's latest box office offering, "From Paris With Love," was the actor's worst start in almost a decade. The crime thriller opened at No. 3 with $8.1 million, falling short of modest industry expectations.
Travolta's previous worst opening was the $4.5 million start for "Lucky Numbers" in October 2000. Travolta was in theaters last November with "Old Dogs," which opened at ticket sales of $17 million.
"From Paris With Love" was distributed by Lionsgate, a unit of Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.. French filmmaker Pierre Morel directed it.
Many critics ripped both new releases.
Also new to the top 10 was "Crazy Heart," which expanded nationally after seven weekends in limited release on the heels of its three Oscar nominations on Tuesday.
The picture earned $3.65 million, jumping six places to No. 8. Jeff Bridges, its star, is considered the favorite to take home the best actor Oscar on March 7 for his role as a washed-up country music singer and songwriter. It was released by Fox Searchlight, the art-house unit of 20th Century Fox.
"Avatar" and "The Hurt Locker," now out on DVD, led the Oscar field with nine nominations each.
(Reporting by Dean Goodman; Editing by Paul Simao)
Avatar 2009 film
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Avatar is a 2009 American science fiction epic film written and directed by James Cameron and starring Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Michelle Rodriguez and Stephen Lang. The film is set in the year 2154, when humans are mining a precious mineral called unobtanium on the lush moon Pandora in the Alpha Centauri star system.[5] The expansion of the mining colony threatens the continued existence of a local tribe of Na'vi—a sentient humanoid species which is indigenous to Pandora. The film's title refers to the genetically engineered Na'vi bodies used by several human characters to interact with the natives of Pandora.[6]
Development on Avatar began in 1994, when Cameron wrote an 80-page scriptment for the film.[7] Filming was supposed to take place after the completion of Cameron's 1997 film Titanic, for a planned release in 1999,[8] but according to Cameron, the necessary technology was not yet available to portray his vision of the film.[9] Work on the language for the film's extraterrestrial beings began in summer 2005, and Cameron began developing the script and fictional universe in early 2006.[10][11]
Avatar was officially budgeted at $237 million.[2] Other estimates put the cost between $280 million and $310 million for production, and at $150 million for promotion.[12][13][14] The film was released for traditional two-dimensional projection, as well as in 3-D, using the RealD 3D, Dolby 3D, XpanD 3D and IMAX 3D formats. The film was touted as a breakthrough in filmmaking technology, for its development of 3D viewing and stereoscopic filmmaking with cameras that were specially designed for the film's production.[15]
Avatar premiered in London on December 10, 2009, and was released internationally on December 16, and in North America on December 18, to critical acclaim and commercial success.[16][17][18] The film broke several box office records during its release and became the highest-grossing film of all time[19] in the USA and worldwide, surpassing Titanic,[20] which had held the records for the previous 12 years. It also became the first film to gross more than $2 billion internationally.[21] Following the film's success, Cameron stated that there will be a sequel.[22] Avatar has been nominated for nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director.[23
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