James Cameron's Golden Film
PAGE 4
RB: I was in high school when Titanic came out, and I remember so clearly sitting in English class and my friends telling me she'd seen it three times already and I have to go see it.
JC: That's the other thing, you have to have great word of mouth, and I think the thing that really propelled Titanic to its success and is propelling Avatar to its success is what I call the sharing phenomenon. People see the film, they can't describe the experiences they've had, but they want to broker that experience for someone else. They want to be the gatekeeper of that experience for someone else. So they'll convince someone else to go, and then they'll accompany them to go. So it's the sharing where they're actually taking someone to the movies, and we all feel that when you discover something and you want to share it with your friends. So I think that this film is working out in that sense.
RB: That's exactly what happened over my Christmas break. People had just seen it in IMAX 3-D and they all said: "This was life-changing. I can't even explain."
JC: That actually worried me at first! Everyone was coming up to me and saying: "I'm speechless. I can't even talk about what I've just seen," and I said: "How am I going to have word of mouth if you're speechless? Use your words!" As I say to my 3-year-old, "Use your words, honey."
RB: It's interesting because originally Titanic seemed like it would skew female, and Avatar seemed like it would skew male...
JC: Yeah, it's true, but then they both wound up right in the middle and were sort of 50/50.
JC: That's the other thing, you have to have great word of mouth, and I think the thing that really propelled Titanic to its success and is propelling Avatar to its success is what I call the sharing phenomenon. People see the film, they can't describe the experiences they've had, but they want to broker that experience for someone else. They want to be the gatekeeper of that experience for someone else. So they'll convince someone else to go, and then they'll accompany them to go. So it's the sharing where they're actually taking someone to the movies, and we all feel that when you discover something and you want to share it with your friends. So I think that this film is working out in that sense.
RB: That's exactly what happened over my Christmas break. People had just seen it in IMAX 3-D and they all said: "This was life-changing. I can't even explain."
JC: That actually worried me at first! Everyone was coming up to me and saying: "I'm speechless. I can't even talk about what I've just seen," and I said: "How am I going to have word of mouth if you're speechless? Use your words!" As I say to my 3-year-old, "Use your words, honey."
RB: It's interesting because originally Titanic seemed like it would skew female, and Avatar seemed like it would skew male...
JC: Yeah, it's true, but then they both wound up right in the middle and were sort of 50/50.
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