Media Money
- LinkedIn Earnings Bode Well for Hiring and Social Media
- News Corp. Beats Estimates on Studio, Cable Strength
- Disney’s Earnings Beat; CEO Bob Iger Talks Piracy, Parks
- Ahead of Disney’s Earnings: Ads and Cable Revenue at the Magic Kingdom
- Coinstar Beats Earnings Forecast on Redbox Growth
- After The Super Bowl: Who’s Buying?
- Super Bowl XLVI: It's All About the Second Screen
- The Super Bowl's Big Advertising Winners: Super Sunday Ad Tracker
- A Sneak Peek at Facebook's New Headquarters
- Twitter’s CEO Weighs in on Google, Censorship Ahead of Facebook IPO
RSS FEED
MOST SHARED
- Criminal Probe Trail Going Cold at MF Global
- Global Markets Update: Markets Soften After Failure to Clinch Greek Deal
- Israel Likely to Bomb Iran This Year: Political Analyst
- Bank of America’s Worst-Case Scenario Gets More Real
- EU Agrees Rules for $700 Trillion Derivatives Market
- Stocks Seen Lower; Greek Debt Hurdles Remain
- CPAC 2012: Energized or Demoralized?
- Greek Aid Deal 'Much Better' Than Euro Exit: Summers
- Global Markets Update: European Markets Follow Asia Lower
- Greeks on Strike as the Second Bailout Is in Limbo
- Bank of America’s Worst-Case Scenario Gets More Real
- Tesla Unveils First SUV: Model X
- New York Fashion Week Hits the Runway as Colors Pop
- Mulling Buffett's Stock Advice? Get in With REITs: Fund Managers
- LinkedIn Earnings Bode Well for Hiring and Social Media
- Top Five Mistakes to Avoid in Online Dating
- Victor Cruz ‘Understands’ Gisele's Super Bowl Frustrations
- Tamminen: The United States of India
- Unusual Volume: Taleo Jumps After Oracle's $1.9 Billion Offer
- Bonus Bloodbath: Europe Banker Backlash Continues
- Stocks Looking Past Europe for a New Driver of the Rally
- SEC Reaches Settlement in Bear Stearns Fraud Case
- Israel Likely to Bomb Iran This Year: Political Analyst
- EU Agrees Rules for $700 Trillion Derivatives Market
- The World's Best Beers
- In Europe, Stagnation as a Way of Life
- Citigroup Takes $50 Million Loss in Lending Rate Probe
- Criminal Probe Trail Going Cold at MF Global
The Big Business of Avatar
Text Size 
CNBC Correspondent
With Avatar opening at 12:01 am on Friday, everyone's waiting to see if the much-anticipated movie lives up to the hype, and how it performs at the box office. I got a sneak preview last week — it certainly didn't disappoint me — I was particularly wowed by the intricate, beautiful world James Cameron creates — but we'll see if the live action-computer generated 3-D hybrid pulls everyone else in.
 |
Source: avatarmovie.com |
So who cashes in if the movie is a hit? Of course 20th Century Fox [NWS
Loading...
()
] benefits — the studio is watching for the movie to hit a certain box office number (estimated at anywhere from $500 million to $800 million worldwide) to break even. It's been a long, four and a half year process and the film cost an estimated $300 million (plus), and an additional $100 million (plus) in marketing and distribution costs.
The theater chains are already counting their revenue from ticket sales, not to mention the huge margins they'll make from popcorn and soda sales: Imax [IMAX
Loading...
()
] has already sold out hundreds of screenings before the film even opens. Regal [RGC
Loading...
()
], AMC, Cinemark [CNK
Loading...
()
] and Caremike Cinemas [CKEC
Loading...
()
] are putting "Avatar" on all their 3-D screens. Theaters charge $3 more on average for 3-D screenings than a regular 2-D one, which is good news for both studios and cinema companies. And if "Avatar" is huge in 3-D, you can bet more digital 3-D projectors will roll out to theaters very soon.
And it's not just movie companies that will cash in if 'Avatar' is a hit. McDonalds [MCD
Loading...
()
] is one of the film's main promotional partners, offering access to 'Avatar' games on McDonalds Web sites and distributing toys in Happy Meals. This partnership should be a win-win: Cameron gets the global brand to raise awareness of his story, while McDonalds gets to tap into the excitement about a new entertainment brand.
And of course, if Avatar is a hit, it's not just a movie, it's a franchise. Mattel [MAT
Loading...
()
] has licensed Avatar characters for games and action figures. And since the movie is so technologically ground-breaking, Mattel is launching some technological innovations as well. With its new Avatar toys Mattel is launching what it calls "augmented reality": each toy comes with a tag that brings up a character on your computer, when its put in front of a computer.
The list of promotional partners goes on and on. Coke Zero [KO
Loading...
()
] launched a viral site for the movie, asking you to join the "AVTR" program. YouTube [GOOG
Loading...
()
] and LG Electronics partnered to support the Avatar premiere. Panasonic is the film's audio-visual partner, providing technology to help create the film, and using the film as part of a marketing campaign. Now all these partners are crossing their fingers for a hit -- the better the movie does, the better the return on investment on the marketing partnership.
Questions? Comments?
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes
