Fan Fare
Entertainment behind the scenes
Love and Marriage … the box office equation?
The top three directors at the North American box office have walked down the aisle a total of 11 times, leading to the decidedly unscientific conclusion that romantic comedies may be better for your marriage than heavy dramas.
Garry Marshall (pictured at left), the man behind last weekend’s champion “Valentine’s Day” as well as “Pretty Woman” and the sitcom “Happy Days,” let the team down by being married just once, to the same woman since 1963 (per Wikipedia).
That leaves current chart-topper Martin Scorsese (“Shutter Island”) and all-time star James Cameron (“Avatar”) with five wives each on their scorecards and approximately zero romantic comedies between them.
Scorsese did take a break from gunning down gangsters and crucifying Jesus to get romantic with the dramatic Edith Wharton adaptation “The Age of Innocence,” not that too many people noticed.
James Cameron: “Avatar” was “my chance to rage”
Director James Cameron has made a lot of big-time films with big-time special effects: “Aliens,” “The Terminator” and that little movie called “Titanic,” but he told Reuters Television in an interview for “Avatar” day that nothing compares to the upcoming space adventure that will land in theaters December 18.
In promotional material, the 20th Century Fox film studio that is backing the movie describes it by saying: “Avatar takes us to a spectacular new world beyond our imagination, where a reluctant hero embarks on a journey of redemption, discovery and unexpected love as he leads a heroic battle to save a civilization.”
“Avatar” for a day — a really big day, a really big flick
It is fitting for director James Cameron that 20th Century Fox is pulling out all the stops to promote his new 3-D, effects-filled spectacle of a movie, “Avatar,” which will land in theaters on December 18. After all, Fox released Cameron’s “Titanic,” and 12 years after its release it continues to be the highest-grossing movie of all time with $1.8 billion in global ticket sales. Nothing else even comes close.
But Cameron hasn’t made a big-budget Hollywood flick since “Titanic,” so “Avatar” comes with some risk. To mitigate the possibilty of a big ol’ box office dud, Fox is promoting the heck out of “Avatar.” It was featured at the recent Comic-Con event in San Diego and on Monday, Fox said it is holding a worldwide “first look” day for “Avatar” anticipators on Friday, Aug. 21. That’s this coming Friday.
