6) How have audiences responded and reacted to the film

"With Avatar, 15 minutes of which was screemed to audiences today around the world, James Cameron has dared to go one step further. The film is a rare, madly ambitious attempt to not just show but immerse cinema-goers in an alien landscape. And judging from what I saw on screen earlier today, Cameron has pulled it off spectacularly."

- Guardian Film Blog, 21st August 2009.

Fans on the Facebook and Twitter sites have given Avatar excellent reviews, with fans extemely happy with the film:

The teaser trailer has been among the most viewed trailers in the history of film marketing, reaching the 1st place of all trailers viewed on apple.com, with 4 million views. We can see by it's commercial success that audiences have responded well to the film.


Website Rotten Tomatoes has an 82% approval of Avatar. With all films, we will see negative reviews, but the majority has been in favour of Cameron's masterpiece.

The film has smashed box office records:

• third biggest film of all time (http://www.metro.co.uk/metrolife/film/808135-avatar-becomes-third-biggest-film-of-all-time)
• fastest movie ever to achieve $1bn in ticket sales around the world
• total gross to date: £32,815,618
• positive early reviews had suggested of a huge success

UK Box Office: 1st to 3rd Jan 2010:

Our opinion of Avatar:

• Personally, we were not able to immerse ourselves fully in the world of Avatar. The storyline followed the typical Hollywood blockbuster narrative but with the futuristic elements that we have not seen before. We agree that the film is a landmark in film history, as Avatar has opened new portals for the media world, like the 3D TVs being released this new year in America and Las Vegas.

"Occasionally, a film becomes a ubiquitous event, saturating the media as well as appearing in advertising, partner campaigns and other outlets. It may develop into a popular cultural phenomenon and become an international news item. That audiences around the world can take a new set of characters to their hearts, often within a very short period of time, indicates how powerful and influential a storytelling medium the cinema can be."
...This is exactly what Avatar has successfully done.

2009 saw the release of Pixar's Up, Monsters Vs. Aliens, Disney's Christmas Carol and Avatar to name a few. All films did well, but Cameron' long awaited and much hyped film has by far exceeded expectations. The 3D phenomenon has not flooded into other forms of Media, not just film. For example the world's largest plasma TV was unveiled only days ago. The 3D 152-inch screen can produce 'highly realistic images...not only for home theatre use but also in business, medical, education and commercial applications."

"3D TVs will take off this year as Hollywood makes a series of three dimensional films including this recent hit, Avatar." (Metro) This just shows that Avatar has not only affected the film industry and the major success of the film means it has reached cult status and will be remembered for years to come.

5) Who is the target audience and how have they been targeted in the UK?

Looking at the genre which Avatar falls into (fantasy/ adventure), the film's target audience would most likely be male teenagers and adults up to the age of around 30 as well as sci-fi enthusiasts. However, the film's huge, worldwide success shows us that it appeals to a much wider range of people.

In the UK, Avatar is rated as 12A. This means that people under the age of 12 can watch the film when accompanied by an adult, although most cinemas are lenient and let anyone in to a 12A rated film. By cutting the film so that it achieves this rating, Fox have made sure they are broadcasting to the audience as basically anyone can watch it.

Avatar has been sponsored by products such as LG Chocolate and Coke Zero. These products specifically target a younger market in the UK, especially those that would be more technologically aware. The link below is the television advert for LG Chocolate and Avatar. The advert was released in December 2009, prior and during the release of the film to gain maximum awareness as possible over it. The advert shows a young, smartly dressed man, which appeals to the main target audience of the film. It could also be said, that the young man being rather attractive, appeals to a secondary audience; women.

Reviews of the phone on the '3' website have also commented on its fit with Avatar, "when we reviewed the LG Chocolate BL40 here at http://www.3g.co.uk/ we said it was “A handsome looking multimedia powerhouse”, making it a natural for Avatar which is being billed as a breakthough in film technology." This shows evidence of cross media convergence, giving the target audience in the UK different methods of accessing the film. The Avatar iPhone app shows another example of cross media convergence with the game being available to download. The use of cross media convergence in marketing Avatar demonstrates how far digital media technology has progressed over these last couple of years.

Like the LG, Coke Zero also released a television advert, promoting the AVTR Coke cans and the film. Like LG, they have also used an attractive young male adult in the advert to appeal to the film's primary target audience, and possibly to a secondary target audience. As well as this, it also has the 3D theme of the film running through the advert. The link below leads you to the advert on youtube. In addition to the television advert, there is also an AVTR website, a Coke Zero AVTR Channel on youtube and a Coke Zero page on Facebook with a secondary Avatar page. The youtube channel and the Facebook page specifically target a younger audience, who are more technologically aware.

The premiere being held in London was also significant in targeting the UK audience. With many newspapers and magazines reporting on the event, in addition to the news stations (most notably BBC, where the premiere was reported on BBC News at 10) there was a guarentee that there would be a nationwide awareness of the film.

The unique way in which Avatar was produced accounts to much of the way it has been targeted to the UK audience. The new technology which was used to make the film 3D and create the computer generated Na'vi meant that almost everyone would be talking about it. Tabloids, broadsheets, magazines, film websites and sci-fi websites (http://www.scifi.co.uk/) would have all been talking about it, generating a maximum amount of awareness of the film in the UK. Additionally, the film being James Cameron's first in over a decade also sparked off a lot of interest and attracted those who may not necessarily enjoy a film from the fantasy/ sci-fi genre. James Cameron's name was expolited in the marketing of Avatar in the UK, attracting the fans outside of the fantasy genre, for instance romance (Titanic, True Lies).

Though the genre of the film may mean that the target audience in the UK is limited, it can be said that it appeals to many more people than was anticipated due to its success at the UK box office, where it has now grossed in excess of £32.8 million. Therefore, we could say that Avatar's UK target audience could be everyone (a broadcast), in response to its huge success in Britain. However, it can be said that they were mainly targeted through the internet and television, representing how Avatar has shown us the future technology plays in the film industry, as well as in our lives.