memories of Avatar

Remember going to see Avatar xmas 09? Seems so long ago now..

In the years leading up to it so rumoured and near mythical as Kubricks AI to movie buffs whod surfed the net throughout the decade on movie news sites like Corona/Coming Attractions, Dark Horizons, Cinescape and AintitCool (along with daily news of Indy 4, Alien prequels, Mad Max 4, ID2, Superman 5, Batman Year 1 etc).. Cameron's ultra secretive sci fi follow up to the biggest movie of all time Titanic. rumours of new FX technology, mind blowing visuals..

Then in 2009 earlier that summer we'd been primed with the (unknown) leads appearing in Star Trek (great) and Terminator Salvation (not so great). Both made roughly the same worldwide (385m/371m) but Trek obliterated Terminator domestic (257m/125m). Then there was the teaser trailer.. 'Aliens' but with blue aliens?? Wtf? Until finally the December release and big but not huge opening (77m - Star Trek did 75m) but just kept going (1% drop 2nd weekend) and going and going until even Titanic was left in its wake..