Fox’s Big Ass Gamble
500 Million Dollars, that’s the budget rumor spreading around the internet about James Cameron’s new movie Avatar. Is it really that high? We’ll never know since the studio hasn’t and will probably never release an official tally. But to be fair, he has been working on this film for around 12-14 years so it could just be the sum total of the more than a decades work for good old Jim. Still, Fox would never grant him the initial 195 Million when they greenlit this non-sequel, non-franchise film a couple of years ago. But hey, that’s Cameron for you, director of a movie that won 11 Oscars and not to mention the highest grossing film EVER. In other words, Fox’s deus ex machina.
But still, it’s a pretty big risk, especially in today’s economic climate, which got me thinking, did Fox’s other movies suffer from Avatar’s massive budget? Sure X-Men Origins: Wolverine, among others were given over a hundred million. So what about their other films?
When you think about it, over the last 4 years, Fox has slid down the totem pole of movie studios. Thanks in no small part to the slow and painful degradation of quality in their films. Since 2006 a great number of their films have struggled to earn money. And if my memory (and wikipedia) serves me right, there have been only 2 recent films from that company that this writer genuinely liked, Horton Hears a Who and Taken (2009’s best film in terms of sheer bad-assery), the latter of which they hugely failed to promote. And what about the licenses, Fox’s last few adapted movies have been notoriously asstastic. Wolverine, Street Fighter and Dragonball are only the tip of the iceberg. Fox was lucky that they have the franchise name to back up those films.
It is my belief that Fox had been pooling their resources for James Cameron, he was a true visionary in making this film and he took his time with this one. He waited over a decade for the right technology to deliver his vision to the big screen. He didn’t rush the film like Micheal Bay did with the 2nd Transformers movie (argh!) and he genuinely cared for this project like Neill Blomkamp and Peter Jackson did with District 9 (YEAH!)
And now, Fox and Cameron’s gamble has payed off, as of Dec 28th, 10 days after it’s release, boxofficemojo.com reports that Avatar has earned a massive $642,993,860 worldwide. Fox can finally catch their breathe and 2009 had it’s big budget special effects bonanza that was actually worth watching (I hate you, Tranformers: ROTF). And be honest, Avatar did not put your ass in the cinema for its story. While the story may be decent and/or good it’s basically a cautionary tale about colonialism i.e. Dances with Wolves, with Smurfs and robots.
AVATAR!
But after the gamble what now? Word around the grapevine is that the story arc is big enough for a trilogy. And with it’s success at the moment it doesn’t take a hardcore movie goer to predict that there will indeed be a trilogy. James Cameron’s technology is already there, he may need to tweak a thing or two for the next one in the series but at least he wont be spending Zimbabwe’s yearly budget again. So do they need another 500 million for that? District 9 proved that with a capable director and a passionate crew, 30 million can go a long way, but Cameron won’t get that, of course he’ll get way more, He’s James Cameron dammit! And while Avatar will not sweep the Oscars like Titanic did, Fox has enough money and reason (and balls!) now to bankroll the 2nd film.
Wait, does this mean that we are about to experience another 4 years of asstastic 20th Century Fox movies? Lets hope not. Does Fox now realize that they can finally go back to quality film making? C’mon Fox, I used to love the films you release and since the James Cameron experiment worked like a charm we don’t need to suffer anymore right? RIGHT?
Oh dear god, no…
