Whether the critics liked or disliked ‘The Last Airbender”, but M.Night Shyamalan’s actioner still attracted lots of people. The box office estimates are in for the weekend of July 9-11th, and The Last Airbender has surpassed the $100 million mark after its second weekend! After adding thirty four additional screens to bring its theater count up to 3,203, The Last Airbender dropped an estimated 57.5% from its opening weekend, grossing an estimated $17.15 million.
The film also has additionally made an estimated $10m from overseas markets which makes The Last Airbender worldwide numbers up to $110m.
Yeah!!!! I loved this movie. The special effects were awesome. I hope it makes 200 million. It should make a killing overseas.
Depending on how many countries it’s playing outside the US, 10 million is actually quite good. Any further info on that?
I believe it is playing only in India and Russia.
130 million in advertising can overcome universal panning.
I’m happy to see it doing well, but that’s not saying I think it’s a good movie. I just want a completely rebooted sequel with a different director/screenwriter.
There will be no other director/screenwriter and there will be no reboot. May be in the next 50 years or so. M.Night Shyamalan wrote and directed the way the studio wanted him to do. It is very hard to bring every little detail in a 2 hour movie and everyone knows that.
Great news! I really liked the movie and I hope it keeps doing well. I’d love to see a sequel…
Then I hope there’s no sequel, lol. I’m sorry, but I didn’t like it at all, and I don’t see it getting better. :/
well there has to be someone who’s dead running around America…. guess you get to be it LOL
Fail, The Last Airbender has NOT surpassed the $100 million mark after its second weekend!
Domestic: $99,712,757
+ Foreign: $10,000,000
= Worldwide: $109,712,757
=Win
150,000,000 dollar budget + 130,000,000 dollar advertising budget – 110,000,000 gross profit = 170,000,000 in the hole; Equals = Fail
http://blog.boxofficespy.com/2010/06/last-airbender-budget-advertising-costs.html
See, you can’t possibly do that math this early. To do that is a fail.
The final box office tally likely won’t be north of the production/marketing budgets, but DVD/Blu-ray Rentals and Sales also contribute to the totals, as well as sales to TV stations for airing.
See, the thing that looking at the box office alone fails to do is take all of these things into account, and after you do that, a movie that looked like a failure can make a major impact.
Another thing to note is that in the history of film, only 460 films have broken the $100 Million mark at the domestic box office. The Last Airbender is officially among them as of Monday. The movie “Office Space” grossed $10 Million at the domestic box office and $2 Million internationally. And according to The-Numbers has 6 Million VHS/DVD sales (which, if they sold for $10 each would amount to about $60 Million). That’s not including rentals and is likely out of date.
Plus, if you consider the fact that Warner Brothers has only lost money on the Harry Potter films (which was recently revealed) at the box office, it’s hard to consider those “wins” for the studio. Yet they kept on making those until the end. There has to be a reason, right? Home Video.
Its great to know that the movi is doing great and you by the end of the month t moie will have made so much money world wde
think about it though…the same thing happened with the hulk which was sort of later remade into the incredible hulk with no actors and everything.
i think the best choice of action is to reboot the first one then do books 2 and 3.
think what would happen if James Cameron took the wheel in the remake….
Hi!
I’d just like to say that I’m a fan of the original series (I’ve seen all three seasons), and I’ve been to see The Last Airbender twice. I love the film, and think it was beautifully done. Some things were certainly changed, and there were problems with it- but the overly negative reviews simply aren’t deserved.
I’ve made a little video (a review and comments on the boycott, an argument against the people claiming racism and racbending) on youtube- please check it out if you’re interested. My name there is zoozathebink. Just search for my channel; the video will play there.
There were so many things done right in this film, I honestly can’t fathom the negativity of some fans- I can only conclude that either they were brainwashed into hating it before ever seeing the film, or they just don’t have the ability to see the forest through the trees- and thus fixate on the pronunciation of Sokka, for instance, and miss the fact that this movie was made with great care and an amazing eye for detail.
That said, there are some legitimate gripes on the part of the fans. I’d say these are things that could have been fixed with better stage management at points- yes, you want to follow through thematically, and you want to keep to a certain style, but not at the expense of practicality. (My example here would be Iroh standing next to Commander Zhao when he stabs the fish- he could have said everything across the room, and from a practical standpoint it would have played better. After seeing the film twice, I can see Shyamalan wanted to convey that Iroh honestly didn’t think Zhao had the heart to follow through, and misread him- but at the first viewing he came across as slow to act, and caught up in Zhao’s psychology more than in preventing a tragedy from happening….) Another stage management issue would be Zuko, as the Blue Spirit, getting surrounded on and fighting back against an army for any amount of time- even 30 seconds for him to successfully defend himself in that situation was too long.
Another scene that needed help was the earth bending village mini arc. I think here too many things were combined into one or two scenes, and the practicality of it all went out the window. However, that for me was secondary to the acting- for whatever reason, the actors chosen for this village were sub-par as compared to the casting for the rest of the film. It came across as a tad amatuerish as a result.
These things aside, however, so many things were done right. Aang’s flashbacks were perfect, the talks with the dragon spirit, if a bit off from the series, were perfectly acceptable and wonderful in their own right. Aang was great, Katara was excellent, Zuko and Iroh just promise to be even more interesting in the future. Sokka- he needed more humor, I feel some of his basic character was lost in this live action rendition.
I also really appreciated the over arcing theme of Aang accepting his responsibility and choosing, at the end, to stand firm against the Fire Nation onslaught without lowering himself to their level- by way of demonstrating his strength with the (frankly amazing!) standing Tsunami of doom. 😀 This is just one example of where the story, the themes, and the CGI came together in a spectacular way.
Speaking of which, the visuals throughout this film were stunning. The detail put into the CGI- Appa and Momo, as well as the Northern Water Tribe (more like Ice City), the bending, the temples, all of this and more- it was spectacular, and helped to make this world so much more real. I thank M. Night Shyamalan for putting the detail into this, as he clearly has done. It make all the difference in the world, in this kind of fantasy world.
All right, I could go on forever, and as likely as not, no one will read any of this, haha. Honestly, I started with my biggest complaints about this film (off the top of my head), and ended with not nearly enough of what made this memorable and special and worthy of taking a little time to sit down and type up my comments here about it. I think people out there who are boycotting this need to give the film a chance- they are truly missing out on a wonderful experience if they don’t.
Again, please check out my video- it says things I feel needed to be said about this film, and, frankly deals with the injustice of this coming under attack due to its supposed “racism”.
Thanks for reading! 🙂
ZoozatheBink
p.s. I apologize for any type-os, errors, etc- I’m hitting the submit button and what is here will have to be good enough. 😛
well the sorcerors apprentice is coming out tomorrow and hopfully it will turn to the critics attention away form the last airbender thus more people will go see the movie and their money combined might give it a little boost in america.oh and one more thing the only reason why its ot doing so good in america is because ameria is picky.thats the truth. I myself enjoyed the movie
SORCEROR’S APPRENTICE is getting beaten by the critics too, LOL, but not as harshly.
Zooza, thank you for taking the time to share your opinions thoughtfully.
Alas, I was utterly disappointed with this film. I won’t go into every detail, but here’s three points foremost on my mind right now.
First, the film killed all the joy of the series. The two comic relief characters, Sokka and Iroh (and yes, I do acknowledge that they are FAR more than just comic relief) are as serious as blood stains. It was telling of the characters (in the series) that they were able to smile and laugh despite the terrible weight of the war around them. That made a statement.
Second, the dialogue was wooden and expository. Too often, characters spoke only because it was a cheap way to summarize information. I do understand that part of that is due to the compression of a whole season into less than two hours. But, for me, the unnatural speech was painful.
Third, I couldn’t see why the pronunciation of Aang and Sokka’s names needed to be changed. Such basic, simple details. Sorry, it just seemed very arrogant– like telling the original creators, “Hey, you know those characters you created, that you gave birth to from your imagination? Yeah, well, you’re pronouncing their names wrong, so I’ll go ahead and correct that for you.”
I wanted to like this movie. I really did. 🙁
I went to go watch the film because i’ve been waiting for it ever since the first preview of Aang blowing the candles was aired. I enjoyed every minute and understood so much of the underlying messages that are in the film. Because of the movie i watched every episode of all three seasons in one week. I think the movie was awesome and I really want to see how they bring the next two seasons to life. The show is amazing!! I used to think it was a p.o.s. until i saw the movie. I’m hooked.
First of all the animated series is amazing and so much fun! I was really looking forward to this film, and then I saw it. It was OK, but I believe he did a huge injustice to Aang and Sokka’s character. Reading above reviews I completely agree with Rod. Both of these characters and yes even Iroh had a great sense of humor; they were fun and light hearted, but the movie portrays them as boring and serious all the time. And yes, why pronounce their names differently. Of course my kids didn’t really notice it.
The other point that about the movie that really bugged me was the end. IN the animated series the Commander kills the moon spirit fish and Aang goes in the water, goes into the Avatar state, and goes on a killing spree. Yes, he did kill all the Fire Nation fighters and ships and finally the Commander who killed the spirit. This was one of the best parts of the series and M. Night completely destroyed it! The only person Aang had a problem “killing” was Lord Ozi (sp?) at the end. The way it was done in the movie missed the whole point of that part of the series.
I also agree with Rod about the dialogue, horrible. I know the first movie introduces characters and the story but goodness, it was painful. I hope he allows the writers of the animated series to help him with dialogue and with writing the next two movies.
The movie at this point has made 117,000,000 thats alot compare with speedracer and dragonball combine. I believe that mix reviews and controversy has made the movie more interestly for nonfans and the entire public.
The movie was very visually impressive, and I really didn’t hate the cast like I thought I would, although I was a bit aggravated when Rathebone said in an interview that this movie would help him prepare for the next twilight movie. However, they did an okay job portraying the super serious kids they were supposed to.
I really wanted this movie to succeed, but the only comedic relief in the entire film was the melodramatic and unbelievable dialogue. Not as unbelievable as twilight, but still, pretty close. In terms of the dialogue, I feel completely let down.
I hope that the creators will consider squeezing a joke into the sequel.
Also, I wasn’t the only person in the theater who found the dialogue funny. Other members of the audience found themselves embarrassed when they accidentally laughed out loud. At least I wasn’t the only one.
No matter the book, series, they seem to be different from the movie. would I watch it again, YES!!!
look at roots, North and South, which were to as precise as the novels
I give it a nine out of ten why, zhoa i found annoying et al I enjoyed their performances.