(And Deservingly So)

I have a bittersweet relationship with the box-office. I mostly loathe the amounts of money certain films make simply because they are advertised as blockbusters, I am sad when great movies don’t receive the recognition they deserve, and I never try to measure a film’s quality simply based on how much profit it has made. But I love the box-office. It’s one of the most fascinating subjects I have ever studied in my life. I spend hours a day analyzing the results of every film I can find (bless the holy website known as Boxofficemojo.com) and I never stop predicting how movies will play out in the future. At this time however, I feel it is relevant, and perhaps necessary, to discuss a little film you might have heard of called Avatar. I say this because it is not only the biggest movie of all time by an enormous number (we’ll get to the inflation mumbo-jumbo in a bit), but perhaps the finest blockbuster drama ever made.

First and for most, that is what Avatar is, a drama. It is a moving story of an ex-marine traveling to the exuberant world of Pandora. Hell, you know the story, because you’ve seen it. If you haven’t, then this article is not for you. Nor is the movie theater for that matter. I say this simply because if you don’t experience Avatar in the theater first, you will have missed a piece of our culture’s history.

Avatar has been compared to Star Wars, in the sense that it is the future of movies. Now this term rings true of many things, and I will get my most passionate statement out of the way first. Avatar has been criticized for having an unoriginal story. A story of a man who fights for one side, enters the world of the other side, learns the ways of that other side, and realizes he’s been fighting for the wrong side. In other words, think Dances With Wolves or The Last Samurai. Now, while I understand this criticism, I don’t agree with it. For example, when Star Wars was released in 1977, were people running out of the theater screaming that everyone needs to see this movie because no one’s ever seen a story like this before? No. People were ecstatic because they had just visually experienced a whole new world. Star Wars is a classic western tale told as a space opera. Avatar is the same way. It’s a familiar story, but told in a way no one’s ever seen before. Does that necessarily make it a bad movie with amazing special effects? Absolutely not. (Please don’t think I’m bashing Star Wars. It’s the one that started it all).

Take Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen for example. One of the worst movies ever made, with state-of-the-art visuals. But did anyone recognize those visual effects? No. They were too distracted with a terrible story that included racist robots, robot testicals, robot heavens, and Michael Bay’s lack of coherent direction. James Cameron on the other hand, has crafted a sweeping science-fiction romantic epic told in a spectacular world with some of the most beautiful moving images every captured on film.

The reason why Avatar is the highest grossing film of all time is simple: it’s a film that people have deemed important enough to experience in the theater. All $2.7 billion (and counting) of them. Sure, there are some asterisks to the film’s crown, with Imax and 3-D showings causing inflated ticket prices. But Avatar is not just the #1 film by barely passing Titanic’s $1.8 billion total. It has passed that total by a almost $1 billion, and it’s still not even done yet. There is a definite possibility that this film could cross the $3 billion mark before its theatrical run ends, which means it would have made the same amount of money as the #1 and #2 films of all time, combined.

When it comes to Oscar night on March 7^th, it looks like The Hurt Locker is going to take the crown. And there is nothing wrong with that. It’s an incredible film, with the Academy finally letting a woman win best director. I would be completely happy if Up in the Air or Inglourious Basterds won as well. They are all worthy. I’m still rooting for Avatar, but it’s all from the heart. Oscar night is my favorite night of television all year, so let the best man win.

Avatar is the kind of film that makes a ten-year old want to start making movies. It’s a kind of film where a family can experience something magical together. It’s a story that can move and shake you in the relevance of today’s politics. It’s a visual experience that only seemed possible in our dreams. When it was released on December 18^th, I was going through a rough patch. My school and work schedules were getting so busy I hadn’t worked on my website in almost a month. That’s the first time that’s happened since high school. When I was walking into Avatar, it was my first ever Imax 3-D experience. The lights came down and I entered Pandora.

Two months and four viewing experiences later, I have yet to leave.