it was the biggest movie in history *12 years ago*. It has since been pushed aside by Avengers, Endgame, 3+ Star Wars movies, etc. It would have made a ton more sense for him to shit out these sequels “while the iron was hot” but he chose to wait a while for some inexplicable reason. I think the *executives* involved…

OK. So it’d probably have to be a murder islet. 

Hell, the Best Supporting Actor/Actress award history is littered with people it didn’t help.

it didn’t put me to sleep but those 3D glasses did kill my eyes.  More importantly, in spite of all the hype, I didn’t really think about it once afterwards, and probably haven’t watched it once since then.  The last Mad Max stayed with me longer afterwards than Avatar.  That more Avatar movies got greenlit is solely…

On a related note that’s more relevant to the readers of AV Club, never accept equity in exchange for a salary. For every startup that turned into Facebook, there are ten thousand that never made a dime - and even in the unlikely event that your company does hit it big in the IPO, there’s still a chance that…

Yeah, but it was 10% of the net, not the gross, so by Hollywood math, he’d actually have owed 20th Century Fox money.

...well, it would’ve earned him a good amount of money, but it wouldn’t be that much.

There’s a general rule in Hollywood: If you’re offered gross take it. If you’re offered net points say, fuck you, and demand a fixed payment. Only huge A-listers get offered gross anyway. Just never take a lower salary that’s supposedly offset by net points.

Perhaps not such a loss. Remember, Fox still claim, according to their accounting, Alien never made any money. Ridley Scott jokes that why they keep on making sequels, to try to make back the money they lost on the first, and that he has far more watertight contracts on Prometheus and Covenant.

“I can’t comprehend these damn Lord of the Rings scripts! Sure its based on one of the most well-known works of fiction in the last century but I just don’t get it. Bring me something sensible like Zardoz!”

To be fair, MOST people weren’t impressed by the Avatar script.

Exactly.

The studio was so desperate to have Sean Connery attached (they needed a name to help secure this massive gamble) that they were willing to give up 15% of the profits - which, according to reports, meant he turned down around $450m

I know Sam Worthington as the guy who when I see his name I think it’s Sam Rockwell for a moment then am sad to realize it’s not. 

While that is genuinely silly, The Avengers predates those other two roles by a couple years. Passing on those two lead him to do The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

If there is one truism in Hollywood, it’s that no matter how successful a film is, the studio will find a way to claim a loss so they can screw profit participants out of their cut. IIRC, even some of the Lord of the Rings participants had to sue for their earnings, because the studio was claiming they hadn’t really…

I will never understand this.  Avatar is the only movie that put me to sleep in the theater.

Christ, Avatar would be twice as good with Damon in the lead. It would be twice as good with Dom DeLuis in the lead.  It would be twice as good with Sean Spicer in the lead.

Sean Connery reportedly turned down both Gandalf AND Dumbledore so I think he had Damon beat.

I’m inclined to agree but I’m not sure if that’s more telling of how fantastic the groundbreaking computer special effects were in Avatar.
Honestly, I don’t think Sam Worthington is a terrible actor. He just doesn’t have any personality, charm or screen presence. He’s handsome enough but without any distinguishing…