14 DAY TRIAL // Earlier this month, as the promo campaign for “Avatar,” one of the most anticipated releases of this winter, was kicking into high gear, reports started to emerge as to how the film stood little chances of actually making a profit at the box-office, especially since it became possible because of an estimated $500 million budget. Not only is the latter claim ridiculous, but “Avatar” will turn a profit, Fox Filmed Entertainment Chairman Jim Gianopulos says for Reuters.
Fans know that “Avatar” was about 12 years in the making, with director James Cameron dedicating most of his time to developing the technology that made it possible. Because of the long gestation period and the amounts of money that were repeatedly invested in it and of which the media caught wind, word in the industry had it that, overall, “Avatar” cost about half a billion dollars to make.
With such an impressive budget, it was almost impossible for it to make a profit at the box-office, except if it managed, upon release, to be bigger and better than any other movie released in recent years, analysts said. All these claims are absurd, Gianopulos says: first off, the film did not have such a ridiculously big budget – yet he does not speak any specific numbers; secondly, because of this, it will actually turn a profit when it hits cinema screens this December.
“That’s a ridiculous number,” Gianopulos says of the reported budget. “It has actually no relationship to the actual cost of the movie. People keep repeating a number, which was as if you added the cost of building the studio 80 years ago to the cost of ‘Avatar.’ The movie was quite expensive, there is no question about that. But viewed now, from the perspective of its completion and having seen it, it’s a formidable work and money well spent,” the Fox chairman explains.
Moreover, even if “Avatar” does not enjoy the large fanbase that franchises like “Lord of the Rings” and “Harry Potter” have, and which guaranteed their becoming blockbusters in just days, Gianopulos has no doubt it too will be a hit. This will be made possible by means of releases on 3D screens, which is yet another reason why director Cameron had to wait this long until he saw his pet project come to life.
“He said the film would play on over 8,000 3D screens worldwide and more than double that number in 2D. Movie goers generally pay a significant premium for tickets to 3-D pictures. Gianopulos said private equity companies Dune Entertainment and Ingenious Media were invested to a substantial degree in sharing the cost of the movie, but gave no figure,” Reuters writes, citing the Fox chairman.