JAke Sully, the former US Marine whose avatar has become the defender of the Na’vis people, is not only a warrior hero fighting against evil humans, but he is also a magician. It turns the image into gold. Or rather billions of dollars. Jake Sully is, in fact, himself the avatar of James Cameron, the most profitable director in the history of cinema.
Of the ten greatest successes for a century, as far as recipes are concerned, three are signed by his hand. The overall winner being the first episode ofAvatarin 2009. It brought in a record sum of 2.9 billion dollars (2.7 billion euros), while his other cult film, titanicreleased in 1997, garnered 2.2 billion (third in the ranking).
The second installment ofAvatarentitled The Way of the Water, follows the same glorious path, since, only four weeks after its theatrical release, it totals $ 1.7 billion in revenue and is already in seventh place at the box office of all time. And his rise is not over, because he is still at the top of entries in the world.
tired heroes
This is very good news for the Disney house, particularly shaken at the moment by the surprise landing of boss Bob Chapek, replaced by his own predecessor, Bob Iger, in November 2022. It was the latter who had negotiated the takeover, in 2019 , from 20th Century Fox studios, the producer ofAvatar, for 71 billion dollars. The capture of stars like James Cameron, and his avatar Jack Sully, is moreover the trademark of Mr. Iger who has thus straightened the creativity, and the success, of Disney during the fifteen years of his reign.
To remedy the weaknesses of the Snow Queen and its descendants, in 2006 he swallowed the toys of Toy Story by buying Pixar Studios, and Luke Skywalker, the Prince of Star Warswith the acquisition of Lucasfilm studios, in 2009, and repeated the feat by absorbing Marvel superheroes, in 2012.
But, like all heroes, they are starting to tire, those of Pixar are disappointing, while the in-house studio recorded a nice flop this year, with its very politically correct cartoon, Strange World (Avalonia, the strange journey). Finding renewal on the outside is a good thing, but it’s not sure it’s enough to wake up all the princesses sleeping in the cupboards of the Wonderful World of Disney.
