Am I the only one puzzled by Pandora?

[Lesverts]

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/world/

However relevant it may not be to you, you do recall that Avatar is the best-selling movie of all time... Right? So if you haven't seen it, don't recall it, or didn't care for it, it's just because your kids were 7 when it came out.

You should go watch (rewatch) it. We did the other day. It is a really great movie... The world they created is beautiful and the quality so high it could have been made yesterday and you wouldn't know. It's got a really great theme about conservation and appreciation for life and this fits amazingly well within the Animal Kingdom.

Outdated... Star Wars is from 1977.

Highest grossing and 'best-selling' are 2 different things. By 'best-selling' Avatar is estimated at #15 on the chart of estimated ticket sales.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/adjusted.htm

Disney owned the rights to the Narnia books for awhile and made two films from them. I wonder why they didn't consider that property for a land in AK back then?

Film rights does not equal theme park rights. Otherwise Universal would have had to negotiate with WB for Harry Potter and someone would have built a Lord of the Rings land by now.

 

[tlmadden73]

Harry Potter was already taken .. and they hadn't acquired Lucasfilm yet ..

 

[Farro]

Narnia? Now that would make for one boring looking land...no offense! (but I'd still visit it while there)

Pandora LOOKS AWESOME in the movie. That is something fun to recreate. (no I haven't seen the whole movie, but I do know what Pandora looked like in it)

 

[mshanson3121]

Well, to begin with, the land was announced in 2011 when the original movie was still fairly current. But yes there are new movies planned.

I'm sure this has been asked before, but why the heck did it take 6 years?!! I mean, really, it's completely irrelevant now. Compared to something like Star Wars that is timeless.

 

[SgtTibbs]

Harry Potter was already taken .. and they hadn't acquired Lucasfilm yet ..

Reports from the time suggested Disney was originally approached with the rights for Potter but passed on it.

 

[Farro]

Bah! To all you naysayers I say....

Every party has a pooper.

 

[BadRomance]

I remember not being that stoked on Cars Land as the movie IMO was okay, but Radiator Springs Racers and the land in general is A+.

That is a good point. I remember on the Disneyland section of these boards we were all moaning and groaning when they announced carsland because we thought cars was the weakest Pixar movie of them all. A decade later, its arguably the best themed/ most popular land in all of Disney. And now that I have kids who are obsessed with both cars movies and watch the cars 3 trailer on a daily basis, I have to eat my words because Cars is far from the weakest Pixar movie. (It's actually the #1 favorite in our household now).

 

[BrianL]

I'm sure this has been asked before, but why the heck did it take 6 years?!! I mean, really, it's completely irrelevant now. Compared to something like Star Wars that is timeless.

I think it might have something to do with James Cameron. He's a great director, but a bit of a perfectionist. Look how long it takes him to make movies.

 

[Anal Annie]

I think if the movies had been coming out on a regular basis all along already rather than waiting 8 years it would have a larger audience / following by now. I think the new land will be a technical wonder and a sight like we've never seen before. That preview of the animatronic was amazingly real. I also anticipate the technical aspects of the banshee ride will rival the HP stuff over at that other theme park. Once people see how cool it is everyone will be singing a different tune. And I for one am ready for something new to open as we go 2-3 times a year. We like AK park but I'm ready for it to have some new stuff to do. This will help fill the void while we wait for the new stuff over at HS...they can't do everything all at once....

 

[mickeyfanachey1999]

Once you go to see a movie once that money is spent. You can't go back and get it back because you didn't think it was worth it. Could just mean that a bunch of people spent 10-20 bucks one a ticket for it then moved on with their lives.

True...but typically its assumed that it takes repeats for a movie to get to the $1 billion dollar mark...nonetheless $2.7. It's just always baffled me.

 

[MrInfinity]

Highest grossing and 'best-selling' are 2 different things. By 'best-selling' Avatar is estimated at #15 on the chart of estimated ticket sales.
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/adjusted.htm

I don't like that chart as much. They even disclaim it on their own page...

Adjusting for ticket price inflation is not an exact science and should be used to give you a general idea of what a movie might have made if released in a different year, assuming it sold the same number of tickets.

That's a huge assumption, but at least they're up front about it. As if to say E.T., if released today for the first time, would have made as much in one modern day release as it did in all re-releases and re-showings over the last 30 years.

There is an entire page dedicated to the counting of re-releases toward the originals. Snow White is overstated in those numbers by 300% because 2/3 of it's revenue is from modern day re-releases. Movie for Movie, Avatar is undisputed #1.

Also consider that the Adjusted Gross chart you quoted is only domestic. 2/3 of Avatar's revenue was international. It made #15 on that list of assumptions while only counting 1/3 of its revenue.

 

[angierae]

So you both aren't going to go to Pandora when you visit AK? To me, that's kind of silly to miss out on something potentially great just because you didn't like the movie. I've never even seen it.

And in answer to shouldn't it be a movie people care about - there are quite a few people who visit Universal to see Harry Potter based on positive word of mouth, not because they have read the books or seen the movies.

Marketing - if Disney does it right people won't need to associate Pandora with anything but an awesome land in Animal Kingdom.

I don't even go to Animal Kingdom every time I visit WDW - we didn't last trip at all.

 

[SC_Pooh]

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/world/

However relevant it may not be to you, you do recall that Avatar is the best-selling movie of all time... Right? So if you haven't seen it, don't recall it, or didn't care for it, it's just because your kids were 7 when it came out.

You should go watch (rewatch) it. We did the other day. It is a really great movie... The world they created is beautiful and the quality so high it could have been made yesterday and you wouldn't know. It's got a really great theme about conservation and appreciation for life and this fits amazingly well within the Animal Kingdom.

Outdated... Star Wars is from 1977.

Thanks for the link. What I found interesting about those stats was that so much of the $ and % for Avatar was overseas audience, not domestic audience. What accounted for that? And for the record I have not seen Avatar, am a huge Star Wars fan, but I am still looking forward to seeing Avatar land at Disney.

 

[Zippa D Doodah]

There is an entire page dedicated to the counting of re-releases toward the originals. Snow White is overstated in those numbers by 300% because 2/3 of it's revenue is from modern day re-releases. Movie for Movie, Avatar is undisputed #1.

I think by any measure Avatar is the box office champ. It just lacks a compelling story.

 

[DaisyJ]

Harry Potter was already taken .. and they hadn't acquired Lucasfilm yet ..

Disney passed on Harry Potter. That seems to be easily forgotten by some.

 

[Somnia]

Yeah, see... that's just it. Nobody cares about Jake or the blue lady or their kids. They mean nothing in our pop culture, except I'm sure to some small niche. The good news though is that the Pandora section of AK can still rock no matter about the movies.

You're right to say that it's not part of pop culture, but to say no one cares is wrong. I care and want to see it, I loved that movie, sure the story was basic, but I loved the characters. I know others that did also, but I also know people who hated it. That's going to happen when that many people see it.

Another thing is everyone says the only reason it did well is because of the 3D and technology wow factor, if that's the case why did it go on to be the largest selling 2D Blu-ray till Frozen released (and it still 2nd behind Frozen). The 3D wow was gone, the wow technology I have to see it in theaters was gone. Also why does repeat Avatar showings on FX and other networks still pull in decent ratings and keeps getting repeated on a weekly basis almost?

It's been 8 years since the first one came out, with nothing after it. No books, no comics, no movies, nothing to keep it in the public eye. When the 2nd one comes close to releasing and the trailer lands, people will talk about it again... if it looks good

 

[JKalai]

James Cameron does make good sequels. I'm still waiting for Titanic 2.

There was a giant tree in the movie? This is why I'll have to rewatch it before I go to WDW next
.
Cars Land is a good analogy. Cars is among the least interesting Pixar movies to me, yet CarsLand looks like awesomeness. I am eager to get back out to DLR and experience it.

Every time I think of either Terminator or the Alien trilogy, I always think of either T2 and Aliens.

I think if the movies had been coming out on a regular basis all along already rather than waiting 8 years it would have a larger audience / following by now.

James Cameron had the idea and wrote the script for Avatar before Titanic, but didn't want to make it because he felt the technology was not at what he wanted. The Avatar sequel was supposed to be out by now if I recall correctly, but it's been getting delayed. Cameron is known to be a perfectionist and has support and trust from the studio (which is rare now days) to delay his movies. Probably because they are guaranteed to be big money makers regardless.

 

[cigar95]

How many people have seen Song of the South but Splash Mountain is incredibly popular? How many kids even know that it's based on a film that you can't even see anymore? Even though Twilight Zone is well-known, how many younger children have actually seen an episode? Or know who Rod Serling is? There was a time, when I first went to Disneyland, that POTC was just an attraction and not a movie and we loved it. It's one of the first rides DH and I went on at WDW when we were first dating and that was years before the movie. As long as the attraction is interesting, fun and well done, I don't think it's relevant whether it's tied to a movie that is currently popular or part of popular culture.

This.
And this.
And this again.

Pandora will succeed or fail (likely succeed) based in if it's well-done or not. One can enjoy it or not without even knowing that there *was* a movie. We're not going to see Michelle Rodriguez flying in being a badass, or even Sigourney Weaver in her scientist mode. We're going to see this amazing fictional world, with this deep (if potentially preachy) connection with nature, that just happens to have been plucked out of a movie.

There may be a few direct references to the movie that we can think of as Easter Eggs, and those familiar with the movie will get them, but it won't lessen the experiences of those who aren't.

I remember the good old days when Disney built attractions based on coming up with good entertaining ideas, rather than insisting on leveraging a popular existing IP. POTC was just a terrific attraction about Pirates running through a town. Haunted Mansion was a light-hearted look at a creepy old house filled with ghosts. Figment and Dreamfinder were characters made up to walk us through a tale of inspiration and imagination. The Yeti has been in legends and probably a movie or two, but Expedition Everest tells its own story. People seem to be OK with these attractions. (All but the last were built before the internet allowed everyone to be an anonymous critic.)

So if one thinks about Pandora as standing on its own, it doesn't matter whether one liked the Avatar movie or not.

 

[BuckeyeBama]

Pandora is going to be amazing. End of discussion.

 

[Pacolovestacos]

Avatar is one of the biggest grossing movies of all time with 4 more movies planned to come. So a total of 5 movies which I'm sure the other 4 with be widely popular as well. It might seem a little outdated because the movie came out 8 years ago, but with 4 more on the way, it won't feel outdated at all. The frozen ride just opened up and that movie came out 3 years prior to the ride. To put both into perspective on just how big Avatar was, for theater opening weekend numbers Avatar did $10 Million more than Frozen..And while Avatar is 4 years older than Frozen, Avatars lifetime gross is $1.5 Billion more than Frozen. So it's not like their dealing with a movie that was a dud and has fallen by the wayside. I agree they should've ramped up the speed and opened the land a little earlier, but I think it'll be accepted well

And if the theme of Avatar being within AK feels like it doesn't fit there, just know that when AK was first imagined they planned to incorporate dragons into it. While the creatures of Avatar aren't real life Earth animals like the rest of the park, the theme and message of the movie fit into AK.

It'll be a hit and I'm sure you'll enjoy it once you get there.

It's not "one of the biggest grossing movies of all time." It is the HIGHEST grossing movie of all-time. #1. Not even the recent Star Wars could defeat it with all of its marketing and hype machine more than a year before the movie came out. Avatar is a beast. And the sequels will be a beast.

Disney is going to absolutely go to town in December until probably 2025 at least.