Last week it was announced that three sequels to the movie Avatar would soon begin filming. Despite it being the highest grossing film of all time nobody…really…seemed to care. In fact the movie has disappeared from our collective consciousness entirely. People still remember and quote movies like The Dark Knight and Titanic, but few talk about Avatar. Why? David Haglund suggested a few reasons:

• The movie isn’t as popular as the numbers suggest. While it may have been the highest grossing movie of all time, once adjusted for inflation, it was only the 14^th highest of all time. And anyway this movie gross was boosted by higher priced 3-D tickets.
• As a 3-D movie Avatar was also designed to be watched in the theater. Since there isn’t that much of a point to watching it at home, people haven’t repeatedly played it, thus not memorizing the dialogue or growing attached to the characters.
• Unlike movies such as the Batman films Avatar consisted of original characters. People remember Batman because he was already a part of our cultural landscape. The characters from Avatar weren’t and so it’s harder for us to keep them in mind.
• Perhaps dialogue and characters from the movie aren’t remembered because…the dialogue and characters weren’t that great.
• That said the movie could still arguably be said to have had an influence on filmmakers. Pacific Rim uses the concept of mind-melds that were seen in Avatar, and After Earth has the mysterious lush planet thing going for it.

Read more about how Avatar relates to Ewoks, Ben Stiller, and more over here.

Source: Slate