Will Avatar symbolize Doom?

James Cameron’s 3-D movie Avatar, 15 years in the making is reportedly nearing a production budget of US $ 500 million. That is half a Billion, people – half a Billion dollars to make a movie ! For 20th Century Fox and its parent News Corporation (under the able tutelage of Mr.Rupert Murdoch, thank you very much), there is close to  ‘everything’  riding on this original (thank God) science – fiction caper , which is about the attempted take – over by the humans  of  the planet Pandora’s resources and how the native species of Pandora, the Na’vi, engage in war against the humans in a bid to win back their very existence.
20th Century Fox seems to be riding along with James Cameron for obvious reasons. Their 1997 release, Titanic cost over Us $ 2oo million to make, grossed around US $ 1.8 billion. We are talking national budgets here,  in the revenue volumes Mr.Cameron can generate via celluloid.
But in a changing world, with a progressively cynical and rational  media marketplace and a movie going public under a barrage of choice and sensory overload, it remains to be seen how far Avatar would go as a revenue generator.
Agreed, you need money to rake in more. If you take a cross section of the costliest movies ever made, they have also brought in double and triple the money spent on them. Pirates of the Caribbean : At World’s End (2007) cost $300m  and brought in close to 1 billion in revenues, Spider-Man 3 (2007) cost   $258m and collected 890 million, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009) which was made at $250m  brought in 929 million in total revenue. ( figures courtesy the Wikipedia).
And 20th Century Fox has gone the way of the smart airlines revenue control model by hedging and spreading the cost over a number of units that function as revenue distributors themselves in this whole process and the final magic figure of Us $ 500 million. Also, even before the movie’s release, James Cameron has already devised an Avatar video game, and Mattel has been authorized to bring out its line of Avatar characters which even comes with a 3D – tag which can be scanned and downloaded on to your computer! This amazingly would then give you the details of the toy in the Avatar universe on your computer!
A major part of the special effects of the movie is also being handled by Peter Jackson’s Weta Digital in New Zealand, which would be another spectacular symbiosis between two stalwarts who thrive in  the world of fantasy – reality with ease, and may even be adopted for his future projects.
Disney wants A Christmas Carol to lead the Christmas Season of 2009, Rupert Murdoch is confident that this Thanksgiving will positively belong to Avatar.
If the tickets sales at the box – office cross the golden mark of Us $ 250 million ( we are talking just domestic sales), then Avatar could be heading just the way Titanic did in 1997, but on a scale that’s too overwhelming to comprehend.

Speaking of which, if the reception to the latest trailer released on November 6, 2009 ahead of A Christmas Carol can be believed, Avatar’s revenue is bound to cross the exalted levels that has been set by the box – office for phenomenal successes, and may even shoot up to a new alien level altogether.

James Cameron’s  Avatar releases on December 18, 2009.

Watch the Trailer of the most anticipated movie of the decade.