How was this movie successful?

[numberthirty]

Crash. The movie approached it's subject matter with seriousness and nuance of a Saturday morning cartoon. Not only was a box office success but it also won three academy awards including best picture.

Which Crash?

[Immortal Weapon]

Which Crash?

2004 movie.

[AndrewCrossett]

Those awful Friedberg, Friedberg & Seltzer "comedies." Some of the very worst movies ever made, yet all of them make money.

[KNIGHT OF THE LAKE]

I would would still call it a fad since 3D was a complete bomb in the consumer market. The glasses, 3D televisions, 3D Blu-ray and 3D games never caught on. None of those technologies are supported anymore. Theaters are keeping it on life support.

Ehhhh every major release nowadays has a 3D release and multiple high value time showings in 3D. There were multiple times when movies did have 3D fads where for a year or so a bunch of 3D films would be released. Especially in the 80's. In the decade since Avatar every major summer blockbuster release has a 3D showing attached. It's more than a fad now

[KNIGHT OF THE LAKE]

Those awful Friedberg, Friedberg & Seltzer "comedies." Some of the very worst movies ever made, yet all of them make money.

Scary Movie did really well and it's sequels. Also Not Another Teen Movie was pretty popular. So they just kind ripped that off and made bank for awhile until people caught on that these were all trash and it eventually died out. They were also incredibly cheaply made films. It was pretty easy for them to turn a profit with a major release. They've never made more than 100 million at the box office but when you never make a film more than 20-30 million that doesn't matter.

[Immortal Weapon]

Ehhhh every major release nowadays has a 3D release and multiple high value time showings in 3D. There were multiple times when movies did have 3D fads where for a year or so a bunch of 3D films would be released. Especially in the 80's. In the decade since Avatar every major summer blockbuster release has a 3D showing attached. It's more than a fad now

Hence why I said theaters are keeping it on life support. 3D in other markets is absolutely dead. It's continued to be supported in theaters as it's an easy way to squeeze a few extra dollars on tickets.

[Tuck]

One of the most obvious stupidities were all the rock and folk tunes on the soundtrack, but the good ol' boys from the south would be listening to country and easy listening--where was Merle Haggard, Charlie Pride, Buck Owens, Bobby Goldsboro, Lynn Anderson, Tammy Wynette, George Jones, Conway Twitty, Roger Miller, Pat Boone, Johnny Cash, Slim Whitman, Patty Page, Herb Alpert?

Gump's an unreliable narrator. How deeply you want to go with that though, I don't know.

[SpiderClops]

I really don't understand the appeal of James Cameron's Avatar. It was formulaic, predictable, and too long. The CGI wasn't all that great, either.

I have to agree. It's so mediocre. Nothing, and I mean nothing, about it is special. Nothing stands out. Visuals are ok, set pieces are ok, action is ok, acting is passable to terrible, dialogues are... "I didn't sign up for this shit."... world's highest grossing movie, people.

What do you mean the CGI wasn't all that great?

Avatar was using groundbreaking CGI at the time. Of course if your comparing it to today's CGI, yeah you have a point.

But the CGI they were using at the time was amazing.

No, even back then I was not impressed with its CGI at all. Freaking Transformers had me impressed. Most stuff in Avatar looked cartoonish, felt like watching a really well made animated movie than a live-action one.

[SpiderClops]

Alice in Wonderland(Tim Burton). How the hell did this movie managed to make $1 Billion, I will never understand.

[Gray Lensman]

Those awful Friedberg, Friedberg & Seltzer "comedies." Some of the very worst movies ever made, yet all of them make money.

Are those the idiots who take old drama shows and make them "comedy" films?







edit: I really can't refer to that stuff as comedy without the use of scare quotes. So I put them in.

[Tofali]

Alice in Wonderland(Tim Burton). How the hell did this movie managed to make $1 Billion, I will never understand.

The same thing could be said about Maleficent. I guess Hollywood peddling four quadrant movies isn't stupid after all.

[motherofpearl1]

It's funny, but some films just don't stand the test of time - they seem great when you first watch them, but rewatch years later and the seem dire. I found that out with the Warriors, yet John Carpenter's films are still great today. I wonder what the reception Thor Ragnarok, which everyone seemed to love, and The Last Jedi, which so many hate, will get years from now.

[Coin Biter]

The thing about Avatar, is that many of the criticisms were absolutely true. The story is banal, the script crashingly obvious, the performances (apart from Ribisi and Lang) workmanlike....and yet, at the same time, Cameron is a brilliant craftsman. When I saw the final battle in the cinema I was astonished, not just by the profusion of images at the time, but how clear everything was. You could follow the exact pattern of what was happening. Cameron can compose the hell out of an action scene. Contrast that with Transformers 2, which I saw near to the same time, where vast machines were beating each other in utterly confusing ways.

The banality and brilliance can also be seen in a film like Titanic. I tend to echo the Plinkett review that Cameron may be simultaneously both great and terrible.

So far as my own choice, I never much liked The Piano, but I’m not going to try to justify that. It was one of the most critically acclaimed films of all time, so perhaps it was just me

[origami]

Alice in Wonderland(Tim Burton). How the hell did this movie managed to make $1 Billion, I will never understand.

The same thing could be said about Maleficent. I guess Hollywood peddling four quadrant movies isn't stupid after all.

Alice Through The Looking Glass was a box office bomb, I have a strong feeling Maleficent 2 will suffer the same fate

[Starter Set]

Well, the transformers movies are an obvious answer. (even if the "why" is quite easy to answer really)

I would add Signs (2002), Pearl Harbor (2001) and Armageddon (1998).

Yeah, i know. Micheal Bay....what can i say? Not my fault if so many people are enjoying his movies.