I’d like to give a tiny Golden Globe to all the fine people who put together these incredibly detailed Avatar Lego dioramas. That’s my kind of 3D.
Many of these are repurposed from older Lego sets, such as Halo and (gasp!) “Toy Story,” which in a way is an apt metaphor for Avatar itself, no? Either way, another win for the hobbyists! (More photos after the jump.) Click here to read more.. »
For an entertainment property to hit $1 billion in sales is a very rare feat. For two separate properties to pass the 10-figure mark at the same time may well be a first.
On Wednesday, Activision Blizzard announced that its mega-hit video game, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, had crossed the billion-dollar mark, after just two months on store shelves–and the entertainment industry’s single-day sales record. That milestone came shortly after it was announced that James Cameron’s uber-blockbuster movie, “Avatar,” had also reached that financial promised land.
To be sure, these are just round numbers, and don’t have any formal meaning, but there’s no arguing with the fact that it sure sounds good for the entertainment business to be sporting two separate billion-dollar titles at the same time, especially since they come from such different corners of the world.
In the history of video games, a billion-dollar hit is an extreme rarity. It’s hard to tell precisely how many there have been, but it’s possible that number is as small as two. Almost exactly a year ago, Activision Blizzard hailed its Guitar Hero III as being the first game to ever cross the billion-dollar threshold–at least as measured by retail sales. And my meanderings through Google failed to turn up another single title that has earned that much, including the much-vaunted Halo 3, or any of the seemingly endless number of Grand Theft Auto releases. Click here to read more.. »
James Cameron’s completely immersive spectacle “Avatar” may have been a little too real for some fans who say they have experienced depression and suicidal thoughts after seeing the film because they long to enjoy the beauty of the alien world Pandora.
On the fan forum site “Avatar Forums,” a topic thread entitled “Ways to cope with the depression of the dream of Pandora being intangible,” has received more than 1,000 posts from people experiencing depression and fans trying to help them cope. The topic became so popular last month that forum administrator Philippe Baghdassarian had to create a second thread so people could continue to post their confused feelings about the movie.
“I wasn’t depressed myself. In fact the movie made me happy ,” Baghdassarian said. “But I can understand why it made people depressed. The movie was so beautiful and it showed something we don’t have here on Earth. I think people saw we could be living in a completely different world and that caused them to be depressed.”
A post by a user called Elequin expresses an almost obsessive relationship with the film.
“That’s all I have been doing as of late, searching the Internet for more info about ‘Avatar.’ I guess that helps. It’s so hard I can’t force myself to think that it’s just a movie, and to get over it, that living like the Na’vi will never happen. I think I need a rebound movie,” Elequin posted.
A user named Mike wrote on the fan Web site “Naviblue” that he contemplated suicide after seeing the movie. Click here to read more.. »
