Santa slid down FOX’s chimney this year delivering a record breaking second weekend for Avatar. The James Cameron fantasy flick took in $75.6 million, edging past The Dark Knight, which previously held the second weekend record at $75.2 million.
In other news (I’ve always wanted to say that), the American Film Institute released its 8 Moments of Significance for 2009 and Avatar made the cut. The criteria is apparently “accomplishments of considerable merit; influences with either a positive or negative impression; trends, either new or re-emerging; anniversaries or memorials of special note; and/or movements in new technologies, education, preservation, government or other areas that impact the art film, television and digital media.”
This is what the AFI had to say about the titanic (pun intended) film:
AVATAR – JAMES CAMERON’S MILEPOST IN THE EVOLUTION OF THE ART FORM
James Cameron’s pioneering effort to unleash the human imagination was fully realized in 2009 with the release of AVATAR, a film that firmly established itself as a landmark in the way stories are told.
With an army of technological wizards at his side, writer/director/producer/co-editor Cameron called upon the forces of art and technology to create new tools for storytelling that are groundbreaking in both scope and scale.
The magic of the motion picture – and the transfer of its power to television and now video games – has always found its truest power in its immersive qualities, and with Cameron’s advances in CGI (computer-generated images) and 3-D, AVATAR enters AFI’s almanac as an achievement that will have profound effects on the future of the art form.
ComicBookMovie.com, and/or the user who contributed this post, may earn commissions or revenue through clicks or purchases made through any third-party links contained within the content above.