tag:theconversation.com,2011:/global/topics/james-cameron-2660/articlesJames Cameron – The Conversation2023-06-09T13:26:08Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2074392023-06-09T13:26:08Z2023-06-09T13:26:08ZJurassic Park yn 30 a'r chwyldro effeithiau arbennig ddigwyddodd yn sgil y ffilm<p>Mae’r mis hwn yn nodi 30 mlynedd ers ffilm a newidiodd y sinema am byth. Defnyddiodd Jurassic Park 1993 ddelweddau a gynhyrchwyd gan gyfrifiadur (CGI) arloesol i ddod â deinosoriaid yn fyw yn addasiad Steven Spielberg o'r nofel o'r un enw.</p>
<p>Daeth y ffilm yn ddigwyddiad yr oedd yn rhaid ei weld yn gyflym iawn a chafodd cynulleidfaoedd eu syfrdanu gan yr olygfa o weld deinosoriaid credadwy yn ymlwybro ar draws y sgrin fawr am y tro cyntaf. Nid yn unig y gwnaeth Jurassic Park <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=uWiWCwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PT6&dq=jurassic+park+cgi&ots=2GhA2wlixw&sig=lhUvmRpL2KYrbQWDfE1fRizz7FE&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=jurassic%20park%20cgi&f=false">gamau enfawr</a> mewn gwneud ffilmiau effeithiau arbennig, ond fe wnaeth hefyd baratoi'r ffordd ar gyfer myrdd o gynyrchiadau dilynol a oedd yn cynnwys bwystfilod o bob lliw a llun.</p>
<p>Cafodd Jurassic Park ei eni yn 1983 fel sgript sgrin gan Michael Crichton. Fe oedd awdur a chyfarwyddwr y ffilm, Westworld (1973), oedd yn adrodd stori parc adloniant lle’r oedd androidau yn camweithio ac yn rhedeg yn benwyllt. Ond cyhoeddwyd ei stori ar thema deinosoriaid am y tro cyntaf fel y nofel Jurassic Park, a ryddhawyd ym 1990 ac a ddaeth yn werthwr gorau.</p>
<p>Dyna pryd y daeth i sylw Steven Spielberg. Erbyn y 1990au cynnar, nid oedd Spielberg yn ddieithr i wneud ffilmiau ffuglen wyddonol ar gyllideb fawr. Roedd ffilmiau fel Jaws (1975), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) ac E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) wedi dangos bod ganddo hanes o wneud ffilmiau hynod lwyddiannus. Roedd Jurassic Park, felly, yn berffaith ar gyfer ei gynhyrchiad nesaf.</p>
<p>Newidiodd addasiad Spielberg, a ysgrifennwyd gan Crichton a David Koepp, nifer o agweddau ar y nofel i roi diweddglo boddhaol i’r ffilm, ond gan adael digon o ddiweddglo rhydd i’w harchwilio ymhellach mewn ffilmiau eraill.</p>
<p>Wrth gwrs, nid Jurassic Park oedd y tro cyntaf i ddeinosoriaid gael sylw ar y sgrin fawr. Mae King Kong (1933) yn enghraifft gynnar o ffilm a wthiodd ffiniau'r hyn a oedd yn bosibl ar y pryd trwy gynnwys golygfeydd o'r gorila enfawr yn ymladd â deinosoriaid.</p>
<p>Daeth creaduriaid yn fyw o flaen y gynulleidfa sinema trwy gyfuno animeiddiad stopio-symudiad ag ôl-dafluniad (lle mae ffilm a saethwyd yn flaenorol yn cael ei thaflunio ar gefndir a bod actorion yn cael eu recordio yn perfformio o'i flaen). Roedd ffilmiau eraill fel Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959), The Lost World (1960) a The Land That Time Forgot (1974) wedi ceisio ffyrdd amgen o ddod â deinosoriaid i'r sgrin, gan gynnwys pypedwaith a hyd yn oed ffitio ymlusgiaid byw gyda phrostheteg.</p>
<p>O'r dulliau hyn, dewiswyd cyfuniad o animeiddiad stopio-symudiad ar gyfer saethiadau hir a phypedau animatronig ar gyfer sesiynau golwg agos i ddechrau gan Spielberg ar gyfer Jurassic Park.</p>
<h2>CGI ac animeiddio</h2>
<p>Cafwyd canlyniadau da gan brofion stopio-symudiad, yn enwedig wrth ddatblygu’r hyn a elwir yn “go-motion”, sef techneg a oedd yn niwlio modelau i ddarparu ymdeimlad o symudiad tebyg i weithred fyw. Ond roedd Spielberg a'i dîm yn dal yn awyddus i fynd ymhellach gyda'r hyn oedd yn bosib. Darparodd Dennis Muren o’r cwmni effeithiau arbennig, Industrial Light and Magic (ILM), ymagwedd amgen drwy ddefnyddio modelu ac animeiddio CGI.</p>
<p>Ar gefn gwaith CGI arloesol yn The Abyss (1989) a Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991), cynhyrchodd Muren a'i dîm gyfres brawf o ddeinosoriaid ysgerbydol. Fe wnaeth profion yn cynnwys <em>Tyrannosaurus Rex</em> gyda chroen ychwanegol gadarnhau ymhellach y sylweddoliad mai dyma'r ffordd i barhau ar gyfer y ffilm. Adeiladodd y dechneg hon fodel y deinosor o esgyrn, ychwanegu cyhyr ac yna yn olaf, y croen.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Rc_i5TKdmhs?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Golygfa'r T. rex yn dianc.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Roedd yn ymddangos bod y tîm stopio-symudiad a oedd wedi'i ymgynnull wedi'i ddileu gan y dechnoleg arloesol hon. Fodd bynnag, y gwneuthurwyr modelau a’r animeiddwyr oedd yr arbenigwyr ar ddeinosoriaid a’u symudiadau. Fe wnaethant ailhyfforddi fel animeiddwyr cyfrifiadurol i barhau i ddefnyddio eu sgiliau ar y cynhyrchiad.</p>
<p>Mae Jurassic Park yn cynnwys 15 munud o ddeinosoriaid ar y sgrin, gyda thua naw munud ohonynt yn cynnwys animatronegau Stan Winston a chwe munud o animeiddiad CGI ILM. Gwelir llwyddiant y cyfuniad hwn yn yr olygfa <em>T. Rex</em> eiconig. Mae nifer o saethiadau animatronig yn cynnwys lluniau agos o’r <em>T. Rex</em> wrth i’r saethiadau uchder llawn ddarparu bygythiad a phŵer y creadur.</p>
<p>Mae'r modd y mae Spielberg yn cyfarwyddo'r olygfa - o adeiladu tensiwn atmosfferig y storm law, trwy'r datgeliad cychwynnol a'r ymatebion, yr ymosodiad hirfaith a'r ddihangfa ddilynol - yn tywys y gynulleidfa trwy ystod o emosiynau. Er bod y darnau CGI yn gymharol fyr, maent yn cael effaith enfawr ar y stori, heb sôn am y gred bod y digwyddiad yn digwydd o'n blaenau mewn gwirionedd. Mae'n gynrychiolaeth wirioneddol o bŵer sinema.</p>
<h2>Effaith</h2>
<p>Ar ôl ei ryddhau, daeth Jurassic Park yn llwyddiant ysgubol. Roedd hefyd yn gyfle perffaith i ddatblygu ac arddangos y datblygiadau diweddaraf mewn CGI. Roedd y wefr o weld rhuthr y <em>Gallimimus</em>, arswyd ymosodiad y <em>T. Rex</em> ac arswyd yr helfa <em>Velociraptor</em> wedi swyno cynulleidfaoedd ar draws y byd. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8hjB6UJ2kMU?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Golygfa rhuthr y Gallimimus yn Jurassic Park.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Ysbrydolodd Jurassic Park nifer o ffilmiau â themâu debyg fel Dinosaur (2000) gan Disney a chyfres deledu y BBC, Walking with Dinosaurs (1999). Ond yn fwy na hynny, fe helpodd i greu chwyldro yn y defnydd o effeithiau arbennig CGI mewn ffilmiau.</p>
<p>O'r chwe munud hynny o ddeinosoriaid wedi'u hanimeiddio, mae CGI bellach wedi integreiddio cymaint â'r diwydiant nes bod bron pob cynhyrchiad ffilm a theledu yn cynnwys rhyw fath o CGI. Gall hyn olygu’n syml glanhau agweddau ar y ddelwedd a ffilmiwyd yn ddigidol gyda thynnu ac ailosod, estyniadau set, ychwanegu modelau set CGI neu gerbydau a phropiau animeiddiedig, at ffilmio gyda sgrin werdd a delweddau cyfansoddi, neu uno actorion o fewn amgylcheddau CGI llawn.</p>
<p>Mae'r ffilm yn parhau i fod yn bwynt arwyddocaol yn hanes sinema. Dyma gyhoeddodd fod creaduriaid CGI wedi cyrraedd, gan baratoi'r ffordd ar gyfer y deng mlynedd ar hugain dilynol o wneud ffilmiau ffantasi.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207439/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Hodges does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Rhyddhawyd Jurassic Park ar y sgrin fawr ym mis Mehefin 1993 a newidiodd sinema am byth.Peter Hodges, Lecturer in Contextual and Critical Studies for Visual Effects and Motion Graphics, University of South WalesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2045922023-06-08T16:28:34Z2023-06-08T16:28:34ZJurassic Park at 30: how its CGI revolutionised the film industry<p><em>You can also read this article <a href="https://theconversation.com/jurassic-park-yn-30-ar-chwyldro-effeithiau-arbennig-ddigwyddodd-yn-sgil-y-ffilm-207439">in Welsh</a>.</em></p>
<p>This month marks the 30th anniversary of a film that changed cinema forever. 1993’s Jurassic Park used pioneering computer-generated imagery (CGI) to bring dinosaurs to life in Steven Spielberg’s adaption of the novel of the same name. </p>
<p>The film quickly became a must-see event and audiences were left amazed by the spectacle of seeing believable dinosaurs grace the big screen for the first time. Jurassic Park not only <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=uWiWCwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PT6&dq=jurassic+park+cgi&ots=2GhA2wlixw&sig=lhUvmRpL2KYrbQWDfE1fRizz7FE&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=jurassic%20park%20cgi&f=false">made giant leaps</a> in special-effects filmmaking, but it also paved the way for myriad subsequent productions that featured beasts of all shapes and sizes.</p>
<p>Jurassic Park originated in 1983 as a screenplay by Michael Crichton, whose previous foray into film as writer and director of Westworld (1973) featured an immersive amusement park where androids malfunctioned and caused havoc. But his dinosaur-themed story first found publication as the novel Jurassic Park, which was released in 1990 and became a bestseller. </p>
<p>That’s when it came to the attention of Steven Spielberg. By the early 1990s, Spielberg was no stranger to big-budget science-fiction filmmaking. The likes of Jaws (1975), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) had demonstrated that he had a track record of making extremely successful effects-heavy but story-led films. That made Jurassic Park perfect for his next production.</p>
<p>Spielberg’s adaptation, written by Crichton and David Koepp, changed a number of aspects of the novel’s ending to provide a satisfactory conclusion to the film, yet leave enough loose ends for further exploration in the franchise.</p>
<p>Of course, Jurassic Park wasn’t the first time dinosaurs had been featured on the big screen. 1933’s King Kong is an early example of a film that pushed the boundaries of what was then possible by including sequences of the eponymous giant gorilla fighting with dinosaurs. </p>
<p>Creatures were brought to life for cinema goers by combining stop-motion animation with rear projection (where previously shot film is projected onto a backdrop and actors are recorded performing in front of it). Other feature films such as Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959), The Lost World (1960) and The Land That Time Forgot (1974) had attempted alternative ways of bringing dinosaurs to the screen, including puppetry and even fitting live reptiles with prosthetics. </p>
<p>Of these methods, a combination of stop-motion animation for long shots and animatronic puppets for close ups were initially chosen by Spielberg for Jurassic Park.</p>
<h2>CGI and animation</h2>
<p>Stop-motion tests produced good results, especially in the development of go-motion, a technique which blurred models to provide a sense of movement similar to that of live action. But Spielberg and his team were still keen to go further with what was possible. Dennis Muren from the visual effects company, Industrial Light and Magic (ILM), provided an alternative approach by using CGI modelling and animation.</p>
<p>Off the back of pioneering CGI work in The Abyss (1989) and Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991), Muren and his team produced a test sequence of skeletal dinosaurs. Additional tests featuring a <em>Tyrannosaurus rex</em> with added skin further cemented the realisation that this was the way to go for the film. This technique built the model of the dinosaur from bones, added muscle and then finally, the skin. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Rc_i5TKdmhs?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The T. rex escapes its paddock.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It seemed the assembled stop-motion team had been made extinct by this innovative technology. However, the model makers and animators were the experts on dinosaurs and their movement, and they retrained as computer animators to continue to use their skills on the production.</p>
<p>Jurassic Park features 15 minutes of on-screen dinosaurs, of which approximately nine minutes feature Stan Winston’s animatronics and six minutes of ILM’s CGI animation. The success of this combination is seen in the iconic <em>T. rex</em> attack scene. A number of animatronic shots feature close-ups of the <em>T.rex</em> before the full-height shots provide the creature’s threat and power. </p>
<p>How Spielberg orchestrates the scene, from the atmospheric, tension building of the rain storm, through the initial reveal and reactions, the prolonged attack and subsequent escape, takes the audience through a range of emotions. Although the CGI sections are relatively short, they have a huge impact on the overall storytelling, not to mention the believability that the event is actually happening in front of us. It’s a true representation of the power of cinema. </p>
<h2>Impact</h2>
<p>On release, Jurassic Park became an instant box office success, becoming the highest-grossing film ever at that time. It also presented the perfect opportunity to develop and showcase the latest advances in CGI. The thrill of seeing the stampede of Gallimimus, the horror of the <em>T.rex</em> attack and the suspense of the Velociraptor hunt captivated audiences across the globe. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8hjB6UJ2kMU?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">“They’re flocking this way” - Jurassic Park’s Gallimimus chase scene.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Jurassic Park inspired a number of similarly themed movies such as Disney’s Dinosaur (2000) and the award-winning BBC television series Walking with Dinosaurs (1999). But more than that, it helped bring about a revolution in the use of CGI in filmmaking. </p>
<p>From those six minutes of animated dinosaurs, CGI has become so integrated into the industry to the extent that nearly all film and television productions feature some form of CGI practice. This can simply mean digitally cleaning up aspects of the filmed image with removals and replacements, set extensions, adding CGI set models or animated vehicles and props, to filming with green screen and compositing images, or merging actors within full CGI environments. </p>
<p>The film remains a significant point in the history of cinema that successfully announced that CGI creatures had arrived, paving the way for the following thirty years of fantasy filmmaking.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204592/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Hodges does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Jurassic Park was released on the big screen in June 1993 and changed cinema for good.Peter Hodges, Lecturer in Contextual and Critical Studies for Visual Effects and Motion Graphics, University of South WalesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2045672023-05-23T11:14:46Z2023-05-23T11:14:46ZHow Alien mutated from a sci-fi horror film into a multimedia universe<p>A new life form was born on May 25 1979 when an alien exploded from the chest of a bewildered officer aboard the commercial towing vessel, Nostromo. The alien that comes to be known as the xenomorph escapes, grows, stalks and kills all but one of the ship’s crew. The lone human survivor, Ellen Ripley, played by Sigourney Weaver, blasts it into deep space turning it and her into icons. </p>
<p>We are, of course, talking about the cinematic classic, Alien.</p>
<p>But what was born that day was not just a horrifying monster. It would become a fully fledged fictional world that, in the four decades following, has become an indelible part of our popular culture. And it is a topic we explore in our new book, <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/alien-legacies-9780197556030?cc=gb&lang=en&">Alien Legacies</a>.</p>
<p>Though initially conceived as a cash-in on the popularity of science fiction in the aftermath of Star Wars, Alien grew from a hugely successful film into not only a franchise but a whole universe. It spawned three sequels - James Cameron’s Aliens (1986), David Fincher’s Alien3 (1992) and Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Alien Resurrection (1997). </p>
<p>There were also two prequels - Prometheus (2012) and Alien Covenant (2017), which were both directed by Scott. And finally, there was a spin-off “mashup” franchise - Alien vs Predator directed by Paul WS Anderson (2004), and its sequel Requiem (2007). </p>
<p>It has inspired innovation and creativity beyond the films. There have been novelisations, video games, audiobooks, comics and <a href="https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/%E2%80%98Ages-five-and-up%E2%80%99%3A-Alien-toys-for-children-and-the-Antunes-Plowman/37a5b6f9d25db0aa08a24322bd82cbcd7bd87d87">toys</a>.</p>
<p>The first two films, Alien and Aliens, have enjoyed considerable scrutiny given their cultural presence and resonance for debates concerning gender, technology and genetics. </p>
<p>But what has received less focus is what Alien has become. The franchise has proliferated and mutated across various forms of media while staying true to its cinematic origins.</p>
<p>Alien, like Star Wars, is what we can now call a “transmedia franchise”. It has pioneered ways of expanding storytelling across media boundaries. Our book examines the transmedia universe as a whole, addressing the original films, the prequels and everything that followed. </p>
<p>The franchise has been open to adopting new methods and ideas, as well as adapting to changes in new media technology and politics. </p>
<p>In fact, one almost entirely neglected aspect of the Alien universe we explore are documents purporting to be “real” crew profiles, training manuals and diaries that expand upon and develop our knowledge and understanding of this fictional world. </p>
<p>One of the extras on the 2010 Alien Anthology Blu-ray collection was a special feature called Weyland-Yutani Inquest: Nostromo Dossiers. This was a collection of corporate documents detailing the professional lives of the Nostromo spaceship crew.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/I0yDagVBGug?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">From The Weyland-Yutani Report: A look at the Nostromo’s crew including past employment and personal life details.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Some of this material, such as the <a href="https://avp.fandom.com/wiki/Aliens:_Colonial_Marines_Technical_Manual">Colonial Marines Technical Manual</a>, has been created by fans. It found its way into gaming instalments of the franchise having been picked up and explored by the many creative artists and writers who have worked in the Alien universe. These include Aliens versus Predator, Aliens versus Predator: Extinction and Aliens: Colonial Marines (2013).</p>
<p>The attempt by media companies to control and manage fan practice is not new, but it demands our attention. <a href="https://ew.com/movies/2019/03/13/alien-trailer-shorts-40th-anniversary/">Inviting people</a> to pitch their own short films set in the Alien universe to mark the fortieth anniversary in 2019 was a canny means by 20th Century Fox to curry favour with the fans of the series. </p>
<p>Similarly, transmedia marketing campaigns have grown to include fictional evil corporate websites, exclusive events at conventions, personalised advertising and franchise universe websites. </p>
<p>We argue that Alien’s transmedia marketing is <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dorothypomerantz/2012/04/18/prometheus-when-movie-marketing-goes-very-right/">particularly captivating</a> because it is closely linked to the film’s production. As a result, these marketing campaigns are arguably becoming as creative and entertaining as the films themselves. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/XqW4JgI4-Vw?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The transmedia marketing campaign for the Prometheus film.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Alien series asks existential questions uncommon in mainstream blockbuster cinema about the origins and destiny of humanity and the dividing line between the human and the machine. </p>
<p>Alien should not be seen, as popular culture so often is, as unimportant or irrelevant to our understanding of ourselves as a species. It has the potential to contribute to our knowledge and enlightenment. </p>
<p>The continuing debate among scholars and fans surrounding the Alien franchise demonstrates how popular culture can bridge disciplinary boundaries and make complex academic debates more accessible. It helps us better understand the significant questions we must ponder as humans. </p>
<p>We hope our book will contribute to conversations about Alien. It explores its relevance to contemporary debates and paves the way for future studies on the franchise. After all, it has entered an uncertain <a href="https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/World-building%2C-Retconning-and-Legacy-Rebooting%3A-Fleury/01dd0b7bc45907cf1f56e55e1237c6d3678609af">new phase</a> under the control of a new owner. </p>
<p>In 2019, Disney bought Fox and with it the rights to Alien. And Disney is a company that, throughout its history, has shown itself willing and able to adapt and build upon all aspects of its holdings in a variety of ways. </p>
<p>This starts with <a href="https://www.ign.com/articles/new-alien-movie-set-to-begin-production-this-month-as-cast-and-synopsis-is-revealed">Fede Alvarez’s untitled Alien film</a>, currently in production, and set for release via Disney’s Hulu streaming service. </p>
<p>Fans and academics will both probably continue to chase Ripley and the xenomorphs across the cosmos for the next forty years.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204567/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nathan Abrams has received and continues to receive funding from charitable organisations and research councils.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gregory Frame has in the past received funding from disciplinary subject associations and research councils.</span></em></p>A new book explores the enormous Alien franchise spawned by the 1979 film.Nathan Abrams, Professor of Film Studies, Bangor UniversityGregory Frame, Teaching Associate in Film and Television Studies, University of NottinghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1991712023-02-07T19:04:33Z2023-02-07T19:04:33ZTitanic at 25: like the ship itself, James Cameron’s film is a bit of a wreck<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508561/original/file-20230207-21-4wnda9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=9%2C3%2C2035%2C852&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Disney</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When it was released 25 years ago, James Cameron’s Titanic was enormous. It made stars of its two leads, Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. Reviews overwhelmingly heaped praise not only on the technical aspects of the film but also the acting and storyline. </p>
<p>In 1997, Titanic was, in the oft-quoted line from the film, “king of the world!”</p>
<p>At the time we were all swept up in the romantic tale of Jack Dawson and Rose DeWitt Bukater, the star-crossed lovers whose infatuation on the doomed ship ended when Jack made the ultimate sacrifice, freezing in the icy Atlantic to save his truly beloved. </p>
<p>But over the years, critics and audiences alike have re-examined the film and found, like the ship itself, it is a bit of a wreck.</p>
<p>When it was originally released, a <a href="https://www.newspapers.com/image/258048661/?clipping_id=97758112&fcfToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJmcmVlLXZpZXctaWQiOjI1ODA0ODY2MSwiaWF0IjoxNjc1MzQ2NDQ1LCJleHAiOjE2NzU0MzI4NDV9.zwnunz556NCc1QF_m4T6QFNTGu2W4b00ograrsGd8Fg">small</a> <a href="https://www.newspapers.com/image/175704135/?clipping_id=97762030&fcfToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJmcmVlLXZpZXctaWQiOjE3NTcwNDEzNSwiaWF0IjoxNjc1MzQ2NTYxLCJleHAiOjE2NzU0MzI5NjF9.pkc0x_OXwU9EdMc-d95Q6-aXrCOMQf7Sf8ph9svWrv0">number</a> of <a href="https://www.newspapers.com/clip/97760857/titanic-1/">critics</a> deeply disliked Titanic.</p>
<p>Today, <a href="https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/titanic/reviews?page=3&type=user">more and more</a> people are re-evaluating their originally positive response to the film and are changing their opinions. From the characters, to the story, to the ending, there are a number of issues with Titanic that appear questionable at best, and deeply unsettling at worst. </p>
<p>It’s even gone far enough that <a href="https://thetempest.co/2016/09/28/entertainment/5-reasons-titanic-is-the-worst-movie-ever/">some critics</a> are calling it the worst film ever made – but that may be taking it too far.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/I7c1etV7D7g?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>An unhealthy obsession</h2>
<p>At the beginning of the film, we find upper-class Rose being forced into marriage with “Cal” Hockley by her widowed mother, Ruth, to save the family fortune and keep their status in society. So unhappy with her situation, Rose decides to jump from the ship. She is rescued by the penniless drifter, Jack. </p>
<p>So begins the plot of the film as the pair constantly run and hide from the authorities to be together.</p>
<p>Jack’s relentless pursuit of Rose around the ship is obsessive. We learn virtually nothing about the character of Jack Dawson apart from him being a poor orphaned artist, he wants Rose, and he will do anything to have her – even though they’ve only known each other for a few days. </p>
<p>Is this a healthy relationship? </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1YGfrGKK9Mo?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Rose is only 17 years old and possibly too inexperienced to identify a stalker or manipulator. Influenced by Jack’s charm, Rose turns against her mother, fiancé and pretty much everyone else in her life. And how could she not? On board the Titanic, almost every wealthy and upper-class person is portrayed as a villain while the people in third class, or steerage, are shown as a salt-of-the-earth, decent and virtuous. Rose’s fiancé is at every turn just a mean, callous man who cares nothing for Rose or for anyone but himself.</p>
<p>Even when the ship is sinking, the officers on board discriminate against the steerage passengers, ensuring only the well-to-do board the lifeboats – just one of the many <a href="https://screenrant.com/titanic-james-cameron-historial-inaccuracies-right/">historical inaccuracies</a>. </p>
<p>All of the upper-class characters we meet on Titanic get little screen time, apart from when they are being desultory, cruel or malicious. They appear two-dimensional, lacking meaningful emotions.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/titanic-on-screen-why-a-night-to-remember-is-the-definitive-film-on-the-ship-181130">Titanic on screen – why A Night to Remember is the definitive film on the ship</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>True love?</h2>
<p>One of the main themes of the film, that true love goes on beyond death, also appears overly sentimental and simplistic in modern times. We understand young teens often lack maturity in relationships and often <a href="https://www.betterhelp.com/advice/love/young-love-can-be-a-confusing-emotion/">mistake</a> lust or infatuation for love. </p>
<p>Would Jack and Rose’s relationship have lasted if Jack had survived? He was broke with no visible means of support. She was 17. Their love affair is a fantasy of no responsibility while on board the ship. Where would it have gone in the real world?</p>
<p>This directs us to another issue. Rose survives the sinking and goes on to marry another man and have a family with children and grandchildren. However, when Rose dies at the end of the film her “spirit” descends to the wreck of the ship where she is reunited with the “love of her life” Jack. </p>
<p>Surely this is a slap in the face to her deceased husband and family. She lived her entire life with these people, yet the film ends up with Rose in the afterlife with someone she knew for a few days.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/c9aBiDiRr30?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>Filled with holes</h2>
<p>Often, critiquing films with modern sensibilities can be unfair. However, Titanic includes a fair number of issues that, even considered with the social mores of the time in which it was made, appear problematic. </p>
<p>This does not take away from the enjoyment many people have gained from the film over the years, and its technical brilliance. But it does give increased weight to the critics who spoke against the film in 1997. </p>
<p>Like the ship itself, the film Titanic is a relic of a different time. Revisiting it can make you wonder why you never noticed the holes in it in the first place.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/titanic-at-25-how-james-cameron-captured-1990s-anxieties-with-pure-golden-age-hollywood-style-196918">Titanic at 25: how James Cameron captured 1990s anxieties with pure golden-age Hollywood style</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/199171/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daryl Sparkes does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In 1997 we were all swept up in the romantic tale – but the film doesn’t stand up to scrutiny today.Daryl Sparkes, Senior Lecturer (Media Studies and Production), University of Southern QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1969182022-12-21T15:11:58Z2022-12-21T15:11:58ZTitanic at 25: how James Cameron captured 1990s anxieties with pure golden-age Hollywood style<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/502225/original/file-20221220-5862-7o5ozu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=70%2C0%2C4179%2C2822&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">James Cameron poses during a promotional event for Titanic 3D.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://epaimages.com/search.pp?flush=1&multikeyword=titanic%20movie&startdate=&enddate=&metadatafield44=0&autocomplete_City=&metadatafield5=">Franck Robichon</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Titanic (1997) arrived as disaster films were experiencing a comeback. Compared to the apocalypses visited on the world in Michael Bay’s Armageddon (1997) or Roland Emmerich’s Independence Day (1996), sinking a single ship may seem like small fry. </p>
<p>But James Cameron’s film played on the same worries about humanity’s fragility in the face of overwhelming forces (and the hubris of our technological prowess) that many films of the 1990s were exploring.</p>
<p>And yet, despite using pioneering techniques (computer animated figures, virtual environments), Titanic structurally harks back to older models of film making. </p>
<p>For all the film shares with other late-1990s blockbusters, as well as disaster movies of the 1970s, the genres Titanic most aligns with are from decades earlier still.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/CHekzSiZjrY?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The trailer for Titanic (1997).</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Titanic’s cinematic catastrophe reflected the pre-millennium anxieties that abounded towards the end of the century, from <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1163/157361200X00032">millenarianism</a> (the fear that the year 2000 would bring about the end of days) to more mundane worries about the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0268401298000437">millennium bug</a>.</p>
<p>In his 2016 documentary, Hypernormalisation, filmmaker Adam Curtis interprets the spate of late 1990s Hollywood disaster films as a <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p04b183c/hypernormalisation">“dark foreboding”</a> His memorable movie montage, set to <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiGxKHFvYr8AhXRglwKHWt6AtoQFnoECBYQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fmusic%2Fmusicblog%2F2016%2Foct%2F30%2Fsuicide-dream-baby-dream-bruce-springsteen-adam-curtis-american-honey&usg=AOvVaw2dqCGoJxFKbJh5-iesOfjP">Suicide’s Dream Baby Dream</a>, of upturned faces gawping at oncoming obliteration does not include Titanic. But, the film’s Edwardian setting aside, it would have fit right in.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vlxGtKw2KAA?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Hypernormalisation’s disaster movie montage (2016).</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Titanic is explicitly structured as a microcosm of wider society. The story takes Rose (Kate Winslet) and Jack (<a href="https://theconversation.com/dicaprios-documentary-calls-for-a-green-future-but-his-vision-isnt-radical-enough-68066">Leonardo DiCaprio</a>) to all ends of the ship, from the first class dining room, through steerage class in the lower deck, to the cargo hold and even the infernal engine rooms. James Cameron crammed a world into his giant floating metaphor – then sent it to its destruction.</p>
<p>The director had already considered the threat of worldwide apocalypse in his Cold War era <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjLlsWZvor8AhWFY8AKHZujDfgQFnoECBIQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Ftheconversation.com%2Fscience-fiction-helps-us-deal-with-science-fact-a-lesson-from-terminators-killer-robots-50249&usg=AOvVaw0qZaW4U1IZfcCDCqA0VsYJ">Terminator</a> (1984) and The Abyss (1989). </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/502179/original/file-20221220-26-d0pk4l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio stand arm in arm on the red carpet. He's in a black tuxedo and she wears a lace black dress." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/502179/original/file-20221220-26-d0pk4l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/502179/original/file-20221220-26-d0pk4l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=930&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/502179/original/file-20221220-26-d0pk4l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=930&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/502179/original/file-20221220-26-d0pk4l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=930&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/502179/original/file-20221220-26-d0pk4l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1169&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/502179/original/file-20221220-26-d0pk4l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1169&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/502179/original/file-20221220-26-d0pk4l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1169&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Classic movie stars.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/18jan98-actor-leonardo-dicaprio-actress-kate-93596233">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Despite the historical setting, Cameron imbues his film with the feel of epic science fiction. He wows audiences and characters alike with the technological marvel of Titanic, the ship and the film, as it heads towards its doom.</p>
<p>Yet for all of the movie’s end-of-millennium unease, the scale of Titanic’s production in its narrative, budget and run time most clearly recalls the <a href="https://mcfarlandbooks.com/product/movie-roadshows/">roadshow pictures</a> of the 1950s and 1960s. These blockbuster productions were designed to wring the maximum experience from films, deploying widescreen formats, new colour film processes, stereo sound and extensive spectacular visual effects.</p>
<p>Roadshow pictures encompassed historical and biblical extravaganzas, lavish broadway musicals and other grand productions. Charging premium ticket prices and playing exclusively in upscale theatres, they featured overtures and intermissions with run times designed to justify their expense.</p>
<p>Titanic’s runtime is over three hours, but the ship does not hit the iceberg until 90 minutes in. In this manner the film resembles such <a href="https://www.indiewire.com/2015/12/9-landmark-cinematic-roadshows-that-paved-the-way-for-the-hateful-eight-42979/">roadshow epics</a> as the nearly three hour musical, The Sound of Music (1964). Though remembered as a film about the Von Trapp family fleeing the Nazis, it is – for the first half – a light musical comedy in which Nazis feature little beyond some mild foreshadowing.</p>
<h2>The woman’s film and the final girl</h2>
<p>Framing scenes set around modern exploration of Titanic’s shipwreck aside, Titanic’s first hour and a half largely foregrounds Rose, the teenage daughter of a wealthy American family.</p>
<p>Rose struggles against the oppressive expectations of her family, especially her mother. In this regard she initially resembles the heroine of the “woman’s film”, a “phantom genre” name coined by <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/F/bo25144826.html">film critic Molly Haskell</a> to describe those golden age films which aimed to appeal to the fears and fantasies of an adult female audience.</p>
<p>With its plot of escape from the cosseting of a traditional marriage (Rose chafes against etiquette, family duty, traditional gender roles and even her clothing) Titanic replicates the woman’s film for the first 90 minutes. That is, until Rose’s world is overturned – and then destroyed – by the slowly sinking ship.</p>
<p>This disaster transforms Rose into a version of what professor of American film <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691166292/men-women-and-chain-saws">Carol Clover</a> calls the “final girl”. </p>
<p>More common to horror films, the final girl is the plucky tomboy who survives the onslaught wrought by the monster. She was an archetype familiar to Cameron, having co-created Sarah Connor for the Terminator franchise and Ellen Ripley for Aliens (1986).</p>
<p>In the path Titanic set for the technological, digitally powered film making that went on to dominate 21st century production, it looked forward to the new millennium. But with its subject matter, structure and archetypes, Titanic kept one watchful eye firmly in the past.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/196918/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dylan Pank does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>25 years on from the release of James Cameron’s epic, Titanic, a film expert reflects on how the late-Nineties blockbuster explored the anxieties of the new Millennium.Dylan Pank, Senior Teaching Fellow, University of PortsmouthLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1920052022-12-15T00:33:09Z2022-12-15T00:33:09ZCan you name a single character from Avatar? What is a ‘forgotbuster’ and is Avatar one of them?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500899/original/file-20221214-461-22jr1l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=3%2C0%2C2492%2C1403&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">20th Century Studios</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>James Cameron’s Avatar 2: The Way of Water, is released worldwide today. It’s the long-awaited sequel to Avatar (2009), also directed by Cameron, and has cost an enormous amount of money to make. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/avatar-the-way-of-water-box-office-china-release-1235268699/">Some sources</a> list the budget at around $350 million dollars, meaning it will need to make upwards of $2 billion at the worldwide box office just to break even.</p>
<p>But do we actually need this sequel? Do people remember the original Avatar? Aside from the 3D glasses and 10-foot tall aliens, what was memorable about it? Is Avatar in fact not a blockbuster, but a forgotbuster?</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/NZrX_ES93JA?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>When it comes to describing a certain type of film, the word blockbuster dates back nearly 80 years. It was <a href="http://shura.shu.ac.uk/6809/3/Hall_Etymology_of_Blockbuster_(rev).pdf">first used in the 1940s</a> in film trade magazines such as Variety and Motion Picture Herald. It was in the 1970s - with the release of <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073195/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Jaws (1975)</a> and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076759/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0">Star Wars: A New Hope</a> (1977) - that the concept of the blockbuster became commonplace. </p>
<p>Ever since, the term has been used to described a certain type of (usually) Hollywood film – full of CGI and special effects, with a fast-paced and action-packed narrative, full of memorable heroes, villains and one-liners, and financially lucrative at the box office. </p>
<p>Blockbusters are not just highly mediatised, extraordinarily successful films on their own merits, but they also become part of the cultural conversation for years to come. Modern-day equivalents include the likes of <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4154796/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0">Avengers: Endgame (2019)</a>, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0133093/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0">The Matrix (1999)</a>, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1745960/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_1">Top Gun: Maverick (2022)</a>, and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0468569/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">The Dark Knight (2008)</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/avatar-the-way-of-the-water-review-tired-climate-cliches-distract-from-camerons-vision-196522">Avatar: The Way of the Water review – tired climate clichés distract from Cameron’s vision</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What is a forgotbuster?</h2>
<p>The term “forgotbuster” was <a href="https://thedissolve.com/features/forgotbusters/">first coined</a> by US film critic Nathan Rabin in 2013 to describe those movies that were among the top 25 grossing films the year of their release, but have receded culturally. </p>
<p>In other words, forgotbusters attracted huge numbers of audiences at the time, but have failed to endure. Rabin’s first example was Monster-In Law (2005), a now largely forgotten comedy vehicle for Jane Fonda and Jennifer Lopez. Rabin’s <a href="https://letterboxd.com/leologan09/list/forgotbusters/">subjective list</a> would also include the likes of Hannibal (2001), Disclosure (1994) and What Women Want (2000). By far his most controversial choice was Avatar.</p>
<p>On its release in December 2009, Avatar quickly became a staggering financial success. Unadjusted for inflation, it remains to this day <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_films">the most successful film ever made</a> in terms of box office receipts. It was nominated for nine Academy Awards (winning three) and briefly brought 3D technology to the mainstream. It was lauded for its exquisite world-building and the IMAX grandiosity of its special effects. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501182/original/file-20221214-14389-tahjkr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501182/original/file-20221214-14389-tahjkr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501182/original/file-20221214-14389-tahjkr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=883&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501182/original/file-20221214-14389-tahjkr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=883&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501182/original/file-20221214-14389-tahjkr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=883&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501182/original/file-20221214-14389-tahjkr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1110&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501182/original/file-20221214-14389-tahjkr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1110&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501182/original/file-20221214-14389-tahjkr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1110&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Avatar (2009) film poster.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">20th Century Studios</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/Movies/01/11/avatar.movie.blues/">Some fans</a> even admitted to experiencing depression after seeing the film as they realised the alien world Pandora where most of the film takes place was not real. Several billion dollars later, James Cameron announced he was not going to make just one sequel, <a href="https://www.vulture.com/2022/11/avatar-sequel-announcements-timeline-james-cameron.html">but potentially four</a>.</p>
<p>The critic Roger Ebert <a href="https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/avatar-2009">described the film</a> as “an Event, one of those films you feel you must see to keep up with the conversation”. But do people still talk fondly or nostalgically about Avatar in the way they do, say, Lord of the Rings (2001-2003), Star Wars, or James Cameron’s other era-defining films like Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991) and Titanic (1997)? </p>
<p>Why hasn’t Avatar seeped into our cultural consciousnesses the way other films have? Rubin’s answer was unequivocal - he <a href="https://thedissolve.com/features/forgotbusters/877-avatars-rapid-rise-sudden-downfall-and-endless-bil/">criticised</a> the film’s “weaknesses and instant datedness”, focusing particularly on the poor acting.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rjRVnVziU2A?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>What makes Avatar a forgotbuster?</h2>
<p>I think there are three other reasons Avatar might be regarded as a forgotbuster.</p>
<p>Firstly, Avatar encouraged film studios to subsequently hike ticket prices based on a “<a href="https://www.theringer.com/platform/amp/movies/2022/12/13/23506729/james-cameron-avatar-3d-filmmaking-legacy">3D premium</a>”. Paying $15 for a regular ticket suddenly became $20 for Avatar and the dozens of movies that followed in the period from late 2009 to mid-2012. </p>
<p>Films were often retrofitted for 3D as studios sought to capitalise on Avatar’s success. This resulted in many sub-standard films being released that offered this supposed 3D experience – and cast Avatar as the film responsible for this surge in bad 3D.</p>
<p>Secondly, beyond its technological advances and impressive visual feats, what else do we remember from Avatar? What was the name of the lead character? Or the planet he landed on? Or the tribe he spent time with? </p>
<p>Avatar’s frozen-in-time memorability stems in large part from its status as an “event”. People went to the cinema multiple times, with family, then friends, then again alone, each time slipping on the 3D glasses and watching in awe at the immersive visual spectacle.</p>
<p>Unlike Cameron’s other classic films, full of indelible figures like Ripley in <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090605/">Aliens (1986)</a> or Arnold Schwarzenegger in <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088247/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0">The Terminator (1984)</a>, Avatar lacks memorable characters or iconic lines.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501183/original/file-20221214-14523-4uh6qv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501183/original/file-20221214-14523-4uh6qv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501183/original/file-20221214-14523-4uh6qv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501183/original/file-20221214-14523-4uh6qv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501183/original/file-20221214-14523-4uh6qv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501183/original/file-20221214-14523-4uh6qv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501183/original/file-20221214-14523-4uh6qv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501183/original/file-20221214-14523-4uh6qv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A still from Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">20th Century studios</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, Avatar is not like other contemporary blockbusters. It is not a sequel, or part of a connected cinematic universe (yet), or based on an existing property. It is not full of star names. It trades heavily on ecological, pro-environmental, and <a href="https://screencrush.com/back-to-pandora-why-is-avatar-forgotten/">anti-military themes</a>. </p>
<p>Because Avatar isn’t a brand like Harry Potter, Star Wars or DC Comics, it lacks the cultural stickiness those franchises rely on to stay relevant in our saturated media landscape. Avatar burned brightly, and then was forgotten.</p>
<p>Avatar’s cultural footprint was temporary. What will happen to Avatar 2? Will it endure? </p>
<p>Despite the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/dec/13/avatar-the-way-of-water-review-james-cameron">mixed reviews</a>, <a href="https://variety.com/2022/film/box-office/avatar-way-of-water-box-office-opening-weekend-projections-1235459227/">the early indications are</a> Cameron’s sequel will be a roaring commercial success, and will presumably gross in excess of $2 billion at the global box office. Avatar 3 is due in December 2024, and two more sequels have been greenlit.</p>
<p>Perhaps this extended Avatar universe will ultimately help both the sequels and the original re-enter popular culture and remind us of Cameron’s impressive skill at blending action, special effects, and the narrative beats that define the contemporary blockbuster.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/192005/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ben McCann does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Avatar 2 is released this week - but now it’s hard to remember a single detail from the original film. Does this make it a ‘forgotbuster’?Ben McCann, Associate Professor of French Studies, University of AdelaideLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1965222022-12-13T17:13:17Z2022-12-13T17:13:17ZAvatar: The Way of the Water review – tired climate clichés distract from Cameron’s vision<p>It’s been 13 long years since we last visited the planet of Pandora. During that time back here on Earth, we’ve seen huge tumultuousness: economic crises, the rise of populist politics, a deadly global pandemic and <a href="https://www.oxfam.org/en/5-natural-disasters-beg-climate-action">a growing climate emergency</a>. But on Pandora, very little has changed.</p>
<p>The main hero of the first Avatar film, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), is still leader of the Na’vi tribe. The tribe still live a symbiotic life with nature and the forests are still awash with neon flora and exotic fauna. Sully now has a family though: four children including an adopted child called Kiri (Sigourney Weaver).</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/d9MyW72ELq0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The trailer for James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of the Water.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Perhaps in an attempt to keep in tune with the development of <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwirhvjhzvb7AhUFolwKHV5NBC8QFnoECCEQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fmcfarlandbooks.com%2Fproduct%2Fassembling-the-marvel-cinematic-universe%2F&usg=AOvVaw1QAiqy49yVpYS3W91p21xe">cinematic universe franchises</a> (one of the biggest popular culture changes in the last 13 years), director James Cameron has decided to rehash the themes of the first film only bigger, louder and with a more <a href="https://variety.com/2022/film/news/avatar-2-budget-expensive-2-billion-turn-profit-1235438907/">substantial CGI budget</a>. But in so doing, he has created a sequel that, while visually stunning, has stunted politics.</p>
<p>It isn’t long into the film that the “sky people” (the invading and colonising humans Sully was once among) make their return. </p>
<p>As if the last 13 years hadn’t happened, we are once again fed the plot of an evil imperialistic force fighting against a nature-loving indigenous population. Only this time it’s wetter and with bigger animals.</p>
<p>If the first instalment was <a href="https://blogs.commons.georgetown.edu/cctp-748-spring2013/2013/05/10/pocahontus-in-space/">Pocahontas in Space</a>, Avatar: The Way of the Water is Free Willy in Space.</p>
<h2>The Way of the Water’s climate catastrophe</h2>
<p>For those who haven’t kept up, Pandora is a far-away planet, rich in natural resources that the greedy human race is looking to mine. In the first film, it was the very valuable (if ridiculously named) <a href="https://www.thegamer.com/avatar-unobtanium-etymology-name-defense/">unobtainium</a> that they were willing to kill for.</p>
<p>This time, humans are looking for a new home away from a dying Earth. </p>
<p>This threat is explored through the familiar <a href="https://edisciplinas.usp.br/pluginfile.php/4374781/mod_resource/content/0/VV_Science_fiction_imperialism_postcolonial_lit_and_film.pdf%22%22">science fiction cinematic narrative</a> of an invading army (who are working for a corporation looking to extract resources) fighting against an insurgent indigenous people.</p>
<p>This is a common cinematic allegory used to depict practices of colonialism that tie military offences tightly with the motivations of profiteering international corporations. Last year’s Dune, a similar science fiction epic, has clear <a href="https://theconversation.com/dune-a-prophetic-tale-about-the-environmental-destruction-wrought-by-the-colonisation-of-africa-170583">colonial overtures</a>, and since 9/11, many American cinematic adventures have played on how the <a href="https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-the-war-on-terror-and-american-film.html">US waged it’s imperialistic war on terror</a>.</p>
<p>After a prolonged introductory conflict, Sully is forced to flee his forest home and take his family to a distant tribe living on and in the water.</p>
<p>We are invited into a serene, ethereal and shimmering world full of colour, strange creatures and clear blue vistas. That the film spends so much time creating this beautiful but “natural” landscape is deliberate. </p>
<p>It is emphasising how indigenous populations’ <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9781315426617/indigenous-peoples-collaborative-stewardship-nature-jeffrey-snodgrass-henry-delcore-anne-ross-kathleen-pickering-sherman-richard-sherman">careful stewardship</a> of their habitats is an important corrective to the runaway climate catastrophe that we as a species (or more accurately, as a <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiGqoOwz_b7AhVGY8AKHbPQApcQFnoECCQQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.simonandschuster.com%2Fbooks%2FThis-Changes-Everything%2FNaomi-Klein%2F9781451697391&usg=AOvVaw0x_HwhkdwSdpI7Xk3hRUsO">capitalist society</a>) are creating.</p>
<p>This Blue Planet aesthetic only charms for so long. The hours spent building this water world add little to the characters’ depth. Instead, a cliched rebellious child versus stern father subplot plays out in exactly the manner you would expect. This is particularly irksome as the complexities of being a parent are themes that Cameron has explored brilliantly in the past – <a href="https://www.slashfilm.com/516622/aliens-released-twentyfive-years-today/">motherhood</a> in Aliens and <a href="https://medium.com/far-from-professional/terminator-2-judgment-day-f54a0e57b158">fatherhood</a> in Terminator 2.</p>
<p>Given the clear links to the natural world and its destruction, this portion of the film could have leaned more into the current atmosphere of protest against climate catastrophe. Climate activism is <a href="https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/239251/majority-young-people-distressed-about-climate/">dominated by the collective action of young people</a>, yet The Way of the Water depicts the tribal children as passively submitting to the will of their parents and elders (with grave consequences for those who didn’t).</p>
<h2>Where the film falls short</h2>
<p>In Cameron’s third act, the rebellious unity of the indigenous tribes, the animal life and indeed the rocky edifices and outcrops come up against the mechanistic and militaristic invading humans. It’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/three-arguments-why-just-stop-oil-was-right-to-target-van-goghs-sunflowers-192661">nature versus capitalism</a>, the pervading battle of our contemporary age.</p>
<p>Given that there is already an Avatar 3 in the works, it’s not surprising that this battle is only partly concluded. Perhaps Cameron is saving the collective resistance of the younger Na’vi against invading forces for the third film? If so, it would be a more <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jasp.12737">fitting allegory</a> for current climate activism.</p>
<p>Mainstream popular culture has <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9780203645161/introduction-theories-popular-culture-dominic-strinati">always been a vehicle</a> to speak truth to power. But in these turbulent times, it is <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/dec/29/climate-scientist-dont-look-up-madness">often mirroring back</a> to us the multiple troubles of our world with increasing detail and <a href="https://theconversation.com/star-wars-andor-captures-the-essence-of-resistance-that-is-happening-in-the-real-world-194566">artistic quality</a>. Avatar: The Way of Water doesn’t seem to go too far down this road. It tells a similar story to the one it told 13 years ago.</p>
<p>As geopolitical <a href="https://rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/geoj.12078?casa_token=0Zk-JG616ngAAAAA:UIIBIxkVlA5Xip4ThXxUvaUX4quSHTJYRrsRAG8WstGHcvlI59X5OGmyOB65gvFEz07nlFtmBS_fFq4i">climate scholarship</a> tells us so emphatically, climate justice is only possible with a recognition of, and action against, the massive damage wrought by climate catastrophe.</p>
<p>In the 13 years since the first Avatar, these lessons have yet to be learned. Climate catastrophe is upon us more than ever. And yet <a href="https://faculty.fordham.edu/tampio/Tampio%20-%20Assemblages%20and%20the%20Multitude.pdf">the world</a> will need to take politically bold and perhaps even dangerous steps in fighting against it.</p>
<p>The inspiration for such bold action won’t necessarily be found in Avatar’s sequel. But what we do find is a reminder of the exquisite natural beauty in the world that we should all be fighting for.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/196522/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Oli Mould does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Fans hoping to find an incisive message about the climate crisis in the Avatar sequel will be disappointed, as a geopolitical climate expert explains.Oli Mould, Reader in Human Geography, Royal Holloway University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1207492019-07-22T10:56:07Z2019-07-22T10:56:07Z‘Avengers: Endgame’ is nowhere near the worldwide box office record – here’s why<p>Marvel’s gambit to propel “Avengers: Endgame” to become the top-grossing movie of all time finally paid off.</p>
<p>The studio <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/noradominick/avengers-endgame-extra-footage-post-credits-scene">re-released</a> the final film in its “Avengers” series earlier this month with extra footage and a post-credit tribute in an effort to pass James Cameron’s 2009 film “Avatar” as the world box office record holder.</p>
<p>As of July 21, “<a href="https://www.marvel.com/movies/avengers-endgame">Avengers: Endgame</a>” had <a href="https://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=marvel2019.htm">collected US$2.79 billion in worldwide ticket sales</a>, <a href="https://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/world/">edging out “Avatar” by around $500,000</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.thewaltdisneycompany.com/avengers-endgame-is-the-no-1-global-release-of-all-time/">Marketing</a> and <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/adambvary/lion-king-box-office-avengers-endgame-record">bombast aside</a>, however, the reality is “Endgame” isn’t even close to the real record-holder – nor is, for that matter, “Avatar.” The reason why gives <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=385083">me an excuse</a> to offer a short lesson on inflation.</p>
<h2>Why adjust for inflation</h2>
<p>Prices from year to year cannot be directly compared with one another because the cost to buy things changes dramatically over time.</p>
<p>For example, in nominal terms, it costs more today <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/food-drink/coca-cola-is-raising-soda-prices-ceo-says-consumers-likely-to-feel-effect">to buy movie tickets, popcorn and soda</a> and get to the theater than it did in the past, while it <a href="https://theconversation.com/rise-and-fall-of-the-landline-143-years-of-telephones-becoming-more-accessible-and-smart-113295">costs much less to call</a> your friends and invite them to come along. </p>
<p>Without <a href="https://www.bls.gov/cpi/questions-and-answers.htm#Question_1">adjusting for inflation</a> and changes in purchasing power, comparisons from one time period to another are meaningless.</p>
<p>One of my grandfather’s favorite stories helps illustrate this. He used to talk about the “good old days” in the 1940s when a cup of coffee or a loaf of bread cost just 10 cents. But my grandpa didn’t consider how much lower his wages were back then. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm">Adjusting for inflation</a> means a 10-cent cup of coffee in 1940 would cost about $1.84 in 2019 dollars. Today you can buy <a href="http://www.wegotcoffee.com/cafe/sizes-and-prices-of-coffee-at-7-11.php">coffee at chains like 7-Eleven</a> for a lot less.</p>
<h2>The real box office king</h2>
<p>And that’s why “Avengers: Endgame” is a long way from becoming the box office king. The heralded numbers don’t reflect inflation.</p>
<p>To demonstrate, let’s first look just at U.S. domestic ticket sales since it’s easier to calculate and see the effect. </p>
<p>The current <a href="https://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/domestic.htm">list of top-grossing films</a> at the U.S. box office is led by “<a href="https://www.starwars.com/the-force-awakens">Star Wars: The Force Awakens</a>,” which came out in 2015 and earned a nominal $936 million, followed by “Endgame” at $854 million and “Avatar” at $761 million.</p>
<p>Adjusting for inflation alters the <a href="https://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/adjusted.htm">list dramatically</a>. Box Office Mojo, an online box-office reporting service operated by <a href="https://www.imdb.com">IMDb</a>, calculates inflation by multiplying <a href="https://www.mpaa.org/research-docs/2016-theatrical-market-statistics-report/">average ticket prices</a> in a given year by estimated admissions. </p>
<p><iframe id="6BezM" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/6BezM/3/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>As a result, “Endgame” drops to 16th place. “Avatar” slips to 15th with $877 million in adjusted ticket sales. “<a href="https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/gone_with_the_wind">Gone with the Wind</a>,” released in 1939, meanwhile, vaults to first place with $1.8 billion in adjusted ticket sales. </p>
<p>Calculating sales internationally is trickier because inflation is different in every country. IMDb, however, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/list/ls026442468">makes a valiant effort</a> making these adjustments. </p>
<p>Based on its estimates, “Gone with the Wind” is the worldwide box office leader with $3.4 billion to $3.8 billion in global sales. Cameron’s “Titanic” comes next at $3.2 billion to $3.4 billion, followed by “Avatar” with $3.2 billion.</p>
<p>With $2.79 billion, “Endgame” falls to fifth, leaving it with almost $1 billion in ticket sales to go to before it could legitimately lay claim to the top title. </p>
<h2>Don’t believe the hype</h2>
<p>We love Hollywood movies because they provide entertainment and escapism. </p>
<p>However, the marketing of Hollywood movies and the hype surrounding ticket sales records, like movies themselves, often play fast and loose with economic reality. This is something I expect we’ll see more of as films get released on far more screens and <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/china-box-office-total-revenue-2018-1172725">more people in countries like China</a> go to see them. </p>
<p>I liked “Avengers: Endgame,” whose plot is based on time-traveling superheroes. It was definitely three hours of escapist fun. But the hype surrounding its box office records, like its plot, shouldn’t be taken too seriously. </p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of an <a href="http://theconversation.com/thanks-avengers-endgame-for-reminding-us-why-inflation-matters-119735">article originally published</a> on July 2, 2019.</em></p>
<p>[ <em>Like what you’ve read? Want more?</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=likethis">Sign up for The Conversation’s daily newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/120749/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jay L. Zagorsky does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Disney says the Marvel movie just beat ‘Avatar’ as the top-grossing movie of all time. Inflation tells a different story, as an economist explains.Jay L. Zagorsky, Senior Lecturer, Boston UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1197352019-07-02T23:42:04Z2019-07-02T23:42:04ZThanks, ‘Avengers: Endgame,’ for reminding us why inflation matters<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/282370/original/file-20190702-126369-1qu4kna.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Cap is probably not a fan of inflation.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Marvel Studios</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Editor’s note: This story has been updated. Please see the <a href="https://theconversation.com/avengers-endgame-is-nowhere-near-the-worldwide-box-office-record-heres-why-120749">new version</a>.</em></p>
<p>Marvel <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/noradominick/avengers-endgame-extra-footage-post-credits-scene">recently re-released</a> the final film in its “Avengers” series with extra footage and a post-credit tribute in hopes of breaking the worldwide record for top-grossing movie of all time.</p>
<p>So far, the gambit <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/box-office-avengers-endgame-wont-overtake-avatar-now-1221918">seems to have failed</a>. As of July 2, “<a href="https://www.marvel.com/movies/avengers-endgame">Avengers: Endgame</a>” had <a href="https://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=marvel2019.htm">collected US$2.77 billion in worldwide ticket sales</a>. This is still <a href="https://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/world/">$22 million shy</a> of James Cameron’s 2009 film “Avatar.” </p>
<p>But in reality, “Endgame” isn’t even close to the real record-holder – nor is, for that matter, “Avatar.” The reason why gives <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=385083">me an excuse</a> to offer a short lesson on inflation.</p>
<h2>Why adjust for inflation</h2>
<p>Prices from year to year cannot be directly compared with one another because the cost to buy things changes dramatically over time.</p>
<p>For example, in nominal terms, it costs more today <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/food-drink/coca-cola-is-raising-soda-prices-ceo-says-consumers-likely-to-feel-effect">to buy movie tickets, popcorn and soda</a> and get to the theater than it did in the past, while it <a href="https://theconversation.com/rise-and-fall-of-the-landline-143-years-of-telephones-becoming-more-accessible-and-smart-113295">costs much less to call</a> your friends and invite them to come along. </p>
<p>Without <a href="https://www.bls.gov/cpi/questions-and-answers.htm#Question_1">adjusting for inflation</a> and changes in purchasing power, comparisons from one time period to another are meaningless.</p>
<p>One of my grandfather’s favorite stories helps illustrate this. He used to talk about the “good old days” in the 1940s when a cup of coffee or a loaf of bread cost just 10 cents. But my grandpa didn’t consider how much lower his wages were back then. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm">Adjusting for inflation</a> means a 10-cent cup of coffee in 1940 would cost about $1.84 in 2019 dollars. Today you can buy <a href="http://www.wegotcoffee.com/cafe/sizes-and-prices-of-coffee-at-7-11.php">coffee at chains like 7-Eleven</a> for a lot less.</p>
<h2>The real box office king</h2>
<p>And that’s why “Avengers: Endgame” is a long way from becoming the box office king. The heralded numbers don’t reflect inflation.</p>
<p>To demonstrate, let’s first look just at U.S. domestic ticket sales since it’s easier to calculate and see the effect. </p>
<p>The current <a href="https://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/domestic.htm">list of top-grossing films</a> at the U.S. box office is led by “<a href="https://www.starwars.com/the-force-awakens">Star Wars: The Force Awakens</a>,” which came out in 2015 and earned a nominal $936 million, followed by “Endgame” at $841 million and “Avatar” at $761 million.</p>
<p>Adjusting for inflation alters the <a href="https://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/adjusted.htm">list dramatically</a>. Box Office Mojo, an online box-office reporting service operated by <a href="https://www.imdb.com">IMDb</a>, calculates inflation by multiplying <a href="https://www.mpaa.org/research-docs/2016-theatrical-market-statistics-report/">average ticket prices</a> in a given year by estimated admissions. </p>
<p><iframe id="6BezM" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/6BezM/3/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>As a result, “Endgame” drops to 17th place. “Avatar” slips to 15th with $877 million in adjusted ticket sales. “<a href="https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/gone_with_the_wind">Gone with the Wind</a>,” released in 1939, meanwhile, vaults to first place with $1.8 billion in adjusted ticket sales. </p>
<p>Calculating sales internationally is trickier because inflation is different in every country. IMDb, however, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/list/ls026442468">makes a valiant effort</a> making these adjustments. </p>
<p>Based on its estimates, “Gone with the Wind” is the worldwide box office leader with $3.4 billion to $3.8 billion in global sales. Cameron’s “Titanic” comes next at $3.2 billion to $3.4 billion, followed by “Avatar” with $3.2 billion.</p>
<p>With $2.77 billion, “Endgame” falls to fifth, leaving it with almost $1 billion in ticket sales to go to before it could legitimately lay claim to the top title. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/282360/original/file-20190702-126382-bkf8q6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/282360/original/file-20190702-126382-bkf8q6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282360/original/file-20190702-126382-bkf8q6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282360/original/file-20190702-126382-bkf8q6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282360/original/file-20190702-126382-bkf8q6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=571&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282360/original/file-20190702-126382-bkf8q6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=571&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/282360/original/file-20190702-126382-bkf8q6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=571&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Gone with the Wind’ came out in 1939, when ticket prices were less than 25 cents.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gone_with_the_Wind_(film)#/media/File:Gone_With_the_Wind_Atlanta_premiere_1939.jpg">ACME News Photos</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Don’t believe the hype</h2>
<p>We love Hollywood movies because they provide entertainment and escapism. </p>
<p>However, the marketing of Hollywood movies and the hype surrounding ticket sales records, like movies themselves, often play fast and loose with economic reality. This is something I expect we’ll see more of as films get released on far more screens and <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/china-box-office-total-revenue-2018-1172725">more people in countries like China</a> go to see them. </p>
<p>I liked “Avengers: Endgame,” whose plot is based on time-traveling superheroes. It was definitely three hours of escapist fun. But the hype surrounding its box office records, like its plot, shouldn’t be taken too seriously. </p>
<p>[ <em>Like what you’ve read? Want more?</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=likethis">Sign up for The Conversation’s daily newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/119735/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jay L. Zagorsky does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It’s why Marvel’s effort to break the worldwide box office record is doomed, as an economist explains.Jay L. Zagorsky, Senior Lecturer, Boston UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/63422012-04-11T00:21:27Z2012-04-11T00:21:27ZOMG Titanic was like for realz #wtf<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/9456/original/mxqtmn9y-1334103230.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Director James Cameron at the launch of the 3D version of Titanic.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Franck Robichon</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Trending on Twitter this week has been Gen Y shock and awe that Titanic <a href="http://now.msn.com/entertainment/0409-titanic-real-twitter.aspx"><em>isn’t</em> just the name of a film</a>. Apparently someone has accidentally stumbled onto the fact that the Titanic story was a tad more than just a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saalGKY7ifU">bad Celine Dion song</a> and some <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYAQDlXwDa8">King of the World-ing</a> on the prow of a ship. <em>OMG why didn’t someone tell me this sooner?</em></p>
<p>There’s an easy story here about dumb kids. A tale of stupidity, naiveté and the downside of education gleaned largely from the screen. A <em>more</em> interesting story however, is the question of why Titanic should be considered more important than any other historic event.</p>
<p>Like many disasters – think the Hindenberg crash or the Challenger explosion – for reasons of sympathy and curiosity and quite possibly even a little schadenfreude – we remain fascinated decades and decades post-fact. Bad news sells and the worse the news, the higher the death toll and the more preoccupied we are. </p>
<p>Only the explanation for why Titanic has been prioritised as a historic event has much less to do with the high death toll and far more to do with James Cameron Inc’s interest in keeping us fascinated.</p>
<p>The RMS Titanic hit the iceberg in 1912. 1500 people were killed, Leonardo DiCaprio was not one of them, nor even was his character Jack Dawson who - like much of the film – was thorough fabrication. A whopping loss of life, to be sure, but lots of equally horrible stuff has happened since, thousands and thousands of other people have died tragically, and rarely have any of them been treated to the loquacious prominence as the Titanic story.</p>
<p>Two years after the Titanic disaster, 1000 more people were killed when the Empress of Ireland hit a Norwegian ship. No blockbuster film, no box office records and no elevation of it in collective memory. In 1945 the Wilhelm Gustloff ship was torpedoed, killing over 9000. The Doña Paz ferry in the Philippines sunk and 4000 lost their lives in 1987. The Haitian ferry the Neptune capsized in 1993 and killed over 1500. </p>
<p><em>Way</em> worse things have happened at sea. And if large scale loss of life is the key to importance, the Titanic pales in comparison to other post-1912 catastrophes. Think some fifteen million from famine in China and at least 100,000 from flood in Vietnam. <em>Just for starters</em>. </p>
<p>The Titanic story is told and retold and has been gifted a ridiculous and gratuitous amount of airplay recently not just because it’s the 100th anniversary of the voyage, but because a 3D rehash of the 1997 blockbuster has been released and because someone has to pay for it. Our interest is being cultivated for commerce rather than commemoration. </p>
<p>Of course, all of those more significant - and quite possibly more <em>noteworthy</em> - disasters aside, another question to ask is whether kids believing that the Titanic was just a film isn’t actually a <em>good thing</em>. Perhaps them thinking of it as fiction helps usefully mitigate muddling of history with Hollywood.</p>
<p>Only the scantest knowledge of British history for example, will tell you that the Margaret Thatcher story was a whole lot more complicated than <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZrAKdlX0SA">The Iron Lady</a> presented. If you were a homosexual or a Communist or any kind of presumed dissident, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vD99zwj-ZUg">J. Edgar</a> probably seemed revoltingly kind to Mr Hoover. Not to mention the accuracy concerns plaguing flicks such as <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1pkbe29910">Michael Collins</a>, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTzvLMUfwB8">The Hurricane</a> and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xha4hZeXFtQ">Confessions of a Dangerous Mind</a>.</p>
<p>Biopics and films based on “true” stories serve a purpose, undoubtedly, but their primary goal is entertainment. To pretend that 90 minutes in a cinema with a vat of popcorn gives you enough data to be informed is farcical. </p>
<p>Indeed, a bunch of kids “discovering” that the Titanic happened in real life long before the 1997 celluloid incarnation is laughable. More ridiculous however, is the extreme priority given to the Titanic story as though we’re being peddled history more readily than cinema tickets.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/6342/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lauren Rosewarne does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Trending on Twitter this week has been Gen Y shock and awe that Titanic isn’t just the name of a film. Apparently someone has accidentally stumbled onto the fact that the Titanic story was a tad more than…Lauren Rosewarne, Senior Lecturer, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/60582012-03-26T06:32:24Z2012-03-26T06:32:24ZJames Cameron and the Mariana Trench sparks titanic angst<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/9007/original/sn5mzfsb-1332739405.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Cameron's voyage was a source of genuine wonder … so why the sinking feeling?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mark Thiessen/EPA</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Today as I ate lunch, Titanic, Terminator and Avatar director James Cameron was at the bottom of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariana_Trench">Mariana Trench</a>, the deepest point in the ocean. We know this for a couple of reasons. Not only did he and his team build an amazing <a href="http://www.webpronews.com/james-cameron-funds-high-tech-submarine-2012-03">submarine</a> for travelling to the deepest deep – they also included the ability for him to tweet while down there. </p>
<p>And so it was that <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/JimCameron/status/184036733959143425">132 characters of English</a> came worming their way up through the abyss:</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/9008/original/fqcw73zj-1332739780.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/9008/original/fqcw73zj-1332739780.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/9008/original/fqcw73zj-1332739780.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=179&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/9008/original/fqcw73zj-1332739780.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=179&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/9008/original/fqcw73zj-1332739780.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=179&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/9008/original/fqcw73zj-1332739780.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=225&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/9008/original/fqcw73zj-1332739780.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=225&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/9008/original/fqcw73zj-1332739780.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=225&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I have to admit, this made me feel quite emotional. This is unusual these days: this is <em>exploring</em>. </p>
<p>There’s something truly amazing in our ability to wrap ourselves in ever more wonderful exoskeletons, exoskins and exoorgans, to use cloth and bone and wood and wire - and now steel and glass and aluminium and an array of elaborate hardware - to take our bodies into environments we never evolved to survive in. </p>
<p>There is something wonderful in using our abilities to journey across frozen mountains, arid deserts and hostile seas to see what’s there and to survive. We are not creatures designed for the deepest ocean, yet we have figured out a way to survive there.</p>
<p>Cameron’s submarine – the <a href="http://deepseachallenge.com/">Deepsea Challenger</a> - is <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/20/science/earth/james-camerons-rocket-plunge-to-the-planets-deepest-recess.html?_r=3&pagewanted=1">a wonder of modern engineering</a>. Secretly built over the last eight years in Australia <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2012/s3461512.htm?site=sydney">by the company Acheron Projects</a>, the Deepsea Challenger has <a href="http://deepseachallenge.com/the-sub/pilot-sphere/">steel walls more than 6cm thick</a>, required to withstand pressures 1,000 times stronger than at the surface.</p>
<p>Where other deep-sea boats have been horizontally arranged, Cameron’s is oriented vertically for optimum plunging. Its thrusters have been placed at the highest point to minimise turbulence and turbidity at the viewing level. The sub even spins like a bullet on its vertical axis to hold a straighter line of descent.</p>
<p>While some criticised Cameron’s dive as <a href="http://blogs.laweekly.com/informer/2012/03/james_cameron_dive_mariana_trench.php">an exercise in ego-stroking</a>, the director-turned-explorer spent much of his time on the sea bottom <a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/03/120325-james-cameron-mariana-trench-challenger-deepest-returns-science-sub/">collecting sediment samples and small sea creatures</a>, to be analysed by NASA scientists.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/9009/original/kfccgyhy-1332739785.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/9009/original/kfccgyhy-1332739785.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/9009/original/kfccgyhy-1332739785.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/9009/original/kfccgyhy-1332739785.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/9009/original/kfccgyhy-1332739785.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/9009/original/kfccgyhy-1332739785.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/9009/original/kfccgyhy-1332739785.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/9009/original/kfccgyhy-1332739785.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mark Thiessen/EPA</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Yet while I gape in slack-jawed wonder at Cameron’s voyage, I know that exploring is something fraught, riddled not just with the quest to know and learn and understand, but to take and claim and conquer. I want to shout for joy at his exploring, but I know that the word itself is damaged: of all the great crimes we have perpetrated against each other, unthinking exploration has been up there with the worst.</p>
<p>This is obvious in people such as <a href="http://ezinearticles.com/?Clive-Of-India---Short-Biography-Of-Robert-Clive&id=829161">Clive of India</a> and <a href="http://library.thinkquest.org/4034/cortes.html">Hernan Cortes</a>, who saw exploring and conquest as synonymous. Clive, of course, was not “of” India. He landed, mapped, conquered and stole. Cortes’s destruction of the world of the Aztecs has been described as one of the bloodiest events of human history. </p>
<p>Yet the criticism of exploration must also be levelled at more outwardly peaceable map-makers such as <a href="http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/cook-james-1917">James Cook</a> and <a href="http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/mawson-sir-douglas-7531">Douglas Mawson</a>. Yes, they have little of the blood of the conquistadors on their hands, yet as explorers they played critical roles in dividing and defining the world as we know it today. </p>
<p>Cook and Mawson both saw themselves not just as describers of the world, but as writing the world, planting the flag for King and Country in distant lands. Indeed, scientific exploration as a quest to describe the world cannot be considered politically neutral. </p>
<p>Like a social science version of <a href="http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/qt-uncertainty/">Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle</a> (where either a particle’s position or momentum can be known, but not both) knowledge of the world has always given mapmakers a greater role in defining what that world is.</p>
<p>And so we’ve (I’ve) grown up with an internalised conflict: between the hyper-masculine explorer - who just went out and bloody did stuff - and the recognition that this archetype is a positive danger to everyone else around him. </p>
<p>As an individual I long to go and do, free from the fetters of social responsibility; as an individual I want those fetters of social responsibility to make a better world for all.</p>
<p>This tension cannot resolved in or by Cameron’s voyage. He hasn’t sought conquest of the deepest deep and no humans will die for his vision. His is not the criminal exploration of centuries past. Yet questions will be asked. </p>
<p>Couldn’t this money have been better spent elsewhere? Aren’t you polluting a pristine environment? Are you doing this for science, or for individual glory? </p>
<p>Some of us might be able to answer these questions easily, but I don’t know if I can. I don’t have yes or no answers.</p>
<p>So what is the emotion I felt when I read Cameron’s tweet? Was it wonder at our abilities as humans to transcend our normal biological limits? Or was it that combination of respect and jealousy one feels for the man with far greater agency and opportunity than I, who has done what I wish I could do? </p>
<p>Should I want to travel to the unseen places of our planet too, or should this want be repressed? Should I want to bear that title, explorer?</p>
<p>I don’t know. I know that our world is almost relentlessly unfair, uneven, unjust. Some of us will have opportunities like James Cameron, most of us won’t. </p>
<p>In his great work <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Being_and_Time">Being and Time</a> <a href="http://www.iep.utm.edu/heidegge/">Martin Heidegger</a> argued that angst was the mood that most revealed us as human. I’m feeling this now: as humans we are defined by our capacity to explore and by our capacity to recognise the others around us; by our yearn for individual glory, and by our desire to live socially with others.</p>
<p>We see angst here. This is a tension we can’t, I’m afraid, resolve. </p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/6058/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Will J Grant does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Today as I ate lunch, Titanic, Terminator and Avatar director James Cameron was at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, the deepest point in the ocean. We know this for a couple of reasons. Not only did he…Will J Grant, Researcher / Lecturer, Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.