Unless you’ve been living under a rock you’ll know that James Cameron’s latest movie, Avatar, is now playing in theatres. Cameron is known for making some pretty big blockbusters like T2 and Titanic and both of those had large budgets and special effects that pushed the envelope. Avatar is no different. Rumours were that the real cost of the movie, which was four years in the making, was almost $500 million, but more official comments have that number closer to $200 million. I’m pretty sure the real number lies somewhere in between.
The worldwide opening weekend take was about $240 million (US) and my friend took me to see it tonight, and he had just seen it yesterday. This was the same sort of thing that happened with Titanic – lots of people kept seeing it in the theatres over and over again.
We saw it tonight in 3D, which I highly recommend. I’d like to see it again in IMAX 3D to get the full experience, but even in the “regular” 3D it was breathtaking. The story, the effects and most importantly, the imagination behind this picture cannot be described in words. You’ll have to see it for yourself. I don’t think the trailer does it justice, but it’s embedded below (email and feed readers can click here to view on YouTube).