The numbers have been revealed. We knew M. Night Shyamalan’s “The Last Airbender” must’ve taken a lot out of Paramount’s wallet, but we had no idea it would have taken $280 million. The film’s budget has been estimated at $150 million with the remaining $130 million spent on advertising the new film. To put that in perspective, that’s close to the budget of the original “Iron Man,” only in this film the most famous actor in is Dev Patel. Buh?
There are already talks of a trilogy, but this is assuming that the film takes the box office hard (and the studio better hope it does.) The animated show it’s based off has attracted millions of viewers, which certainly is a good base to sprout a film from. It also looks much darker than its counterpart, with Shyamalan noting “The movie is less slapsticky and more epic and darker.” And seeing as this summer is relatively dry of big CGI-heavy tentpoles, the film’s eye candy could really pull in adult audiences looking to be wowed (in 3D) while stuffing their face with popcorn.
But can the film do more than just make its budget back? $280 million is a large number to hit, and the film has to really surpass that to even realistically start thinking about a sequel, especially seeing as each subsequent entry is likely to cost more than its predecessor. It also should be noted that Shyamalan isn’t really in critical favor – his past two films, “Lady in the Water” and “The Happening” were largely panned, with the former taking the brunt of all the negative press, with the film barely breaking even worldwide; “The Happening” is a different story, it actually made $100 million over its budget worldwide. However, a tentpole is a tentpole, and audiences are likely to go see any film with a little bald child conjuring up fire no matter what the reviews say.
“The Last Airbender” is going to have to work hard to make the nearly insane money it will need (and it probably won’t help that “Twilight: Eclipse” opens the day before this film), but its not impossible. The film is definitely unlike anything else Shyamalan has done, so any predispositions against the filmmaker will likely not effect this film’s chance at the box-office. If it succeeds in bringing in audiences with ages across the board, Paramount can have a big bread winner on their hands. And honestly, we have to admit, the trailer does look kind of cool.
