James Cameron's lead character Sully

Nothing is rational about the movie itself, and that seems to be what the audience enjoys about Avatar and its other-worldly sets. With all of the stress people cope with throughout the holidays, it is a treat to take a few hour break and be transported to another place and time such as with this instant classic movie.

Certainly one could say that this movie is based partly on science, and partly on art. My first impression of the movie was that James Cameron basically had an orgasm on film — not literally of course. Every minute detail of the imagery is controlled to create the kind of total fantasy world that took me away for the duration of the movie.

My one headscratcher during the movie is that there is a particular flying critter, the largest in the land, that appears made of silk materials. Perhaps it was intentional to distinguish the role the critter would later play in the climax of the movie? It just seemed a little less natural of a skin than the other creatures brought to life from Cameron’s imagination.

The story is just ok enough to not matter too much as compared to the staggering shock and awe of the visuals. The plot is somewhat tried and true and I cannot blame the studio and James Cameron for playing it safe, since the special effects are such a monumental leap forward for Hollywood.

Go see Avatar in IMAX 3D to see the whole movie. Without the 3D, some of the grandeur of the movie is not present.

With $42.5 million in U.S. movie revenue this weekend, New Moon pushed up its total to $230.7 million. That is still only half of the investment thus in far into James Cameron’s ‘Avatar’. Cameron’s long time vision of never seen before characters are getting the film viewing marketplace primed – but will Avatar live up to the hype?

Twilight 'New Moon'

Sandra Bullock was probably not mad at her fans for helping The Blind Side finish second for the week with $34.5 million in movie revenue in its debut.

‘Precious’ also continues to tick away with millions of dollars in returns for a movie that cost less than $10 million to produce.

LA Times Coverage

Official 2012 Trailer #3

Will 2012 continue its torrid sales- what do you think?

Disney’s animation movie cost $175 million to get out of the gates, and it has returned $31 million in movie revenue in its first week.

A long run abroad, combined with some bad weather on the weekends could blow up the revenue numbers for A Christmas Carol going forward. The U.S. had a mild weekend this weekend which could have impacted Disney’s box office results.

CNN’s article noted The $175 million animated movie, which utilized performance-capture technology to allow Jim Carrey to play multiple roles from Charles Dickens’ beloved story, represented the best opening in director Robert Zemeckis’ career.

And even though ‘Carol’ performed a bit below expectations, the family film should hold up well in the coming weeks, especially since it’ll be playing on nearly 200 pricey IMAX screens until “Avatar” opens on December 18.

Do you think Disney’s A Christmas Carol Will Earn Back What It Cost To Produce?

“Paranormal Activity” Record Box Office (PHOTO, VIDEO) -- “Paranormal Activity” has surpassed The Blair Witch Project to become the most profitable movie ever made. Thanks largely in part to 8,000 Twitter followers and 125,000 Facebook fans, it has become the most talked about movie with the power of word of mouth in full effect. Read The Whole Jim Brogan Article.

Paranormal Activity Official Trailer

Michael Jackson film ‘This Is It’ performs well overseas

The Sony Pictures movie takes in an estimated $68.5 million over five days outside the U.S. and Canada, more than double its domestic total.

“This Is It” opened to a studio-estimated $68.5 million in 108 foreign territories from Wednesday through Sunday and $32.5 million in the U.S. and Canada, where it started late Tuesday….Read The Whole Article By Ben Fritz of the LA Times.

This Is It Official YouTube Trailer

The low-budget upstart easily beats the latest entry in Lionsgate’s popular series. Three other new films — ‘Astro Boy,’ ‘Cirque du Freak’ and ‘Amelia’ — flop.

…Paramount indeed has a miracle on its hands with “Paranormal Activity,” a movie produced for $15,000 and acquired for $300,000 that vanquished four new pictures with combined production budgets of more than $155 million to finish No. 1 at the box office this weekend.

As “Paranormal” sold a studio-estimated $22 million worth of tickets on its fifth weekend, Lionsgate’s sixth entry in its annual “Saw” franchise, which has been a reliable cash cow for the independent studio since 2004, opened to a surprisingly weak $14.8 million…(Read the whole LA Times Article by Ben Fritz)