Turns out that AVATAR re-release didn’t do too well

Turns out that AVATAR re-release didn’t do too well

Aug 30

With the DVD release mere months old, another DVD release a couple of months down the track, and an already congested sampling of 3D films currently in show (Step Up 3D, Piranha 3D, Toy Story 3D), it shouldn’t come as too much of a shock that a lot of people skipped return trip to Pandora.

Avatar managed to drum up $4 million over the past weekend, a paltry amount compared to its original $2.7 billion run. It only played on 800 screens, though, and managed a pretty-good $5000 per-screen average. But what happened to all those people that bragged about having seen Avatar 17 times? The folk that bought the DVD and Blu-Ray on opening day, the folk that dragged everyone they knew to go and see the movie, the folk that flooded the internet with hyperbolic fanboyism? Shouldn’t all those funs have bumped up Avatar‘s re-release gross?

My theory is that those people represent the vocal minority. Avatar didn’t make $2.7 billion the first time around from fanatical repeat-viewings; it made it from one-off punters, people curious to see what all the fuss was about, and from people who heard the movie was the second coming of Christ. Those people, casual moviegoers, probably don’t care to see a movie twice in the same year; if they do, they’ve probably already got the DVD and don’t want to have to shell out $20 plus silly glasses to see a movie they already own again.The $4 million, in this theory, comes mostly from those vocal but outnumbered fans, and not from the bulk of Avatar‘s core audience.

Well, that’s just my theory. Maybe if it had released on more than 800 American screens Avatar would have seen a greater return.

The Avatar re-release is in cinemas right now. Go see it quick, because it probably won’t last long.