[i]Avatar[/i]’s Midnight Screenings

posted by Ross Melnick on December 18, 2009 at 12:18 pm

Variety is reporting that James Cameron’s new film “Avatar” grossed $3.5 million in midnight screenings at roughly 2,000 locations last night. While the trade journal refers to it as a “strong start” for the “sweeping 3D sci-fi fantasy,” Nikki Finke at Deadline Hollywood Daily is throwing a bit of cold water on the film’s expectations by noting that “last night there weren’t the usual reports pouring in to me of long lines and sold-out theaters after midnight, except for the IMAX 3D venues. Instead, Internet chatter and anecdotal accounts indicate moviehouses showing Avatar were not playing to packed houses — at least not yet.” Friday matinees are supposedly strong, however.

Finke does add one interesting quote from Steven Spielberg (“after screening it on the Fox lot”): “The last time I came out of a movie feeling that way it was the first time I saw Star Wars.”