• 57 the second film’s disappointing Metacritic score source

• 3-D is a waste of a perfectly good dimension. Hollywood’s current crazy stampede toward it is suicidal. It adds nothing essential to the moviegoing experience.
• Film critic and all-around awesome person Roger Ebert • Talking about the craze towards three-dimensional films started by “Avatar” and continued with pretty much every major hit movie so far this year. His argument? It makes you sick, and you don’t really need it to tell a great story. “A great film completely engages our imaginations,” he writes. “What would ‘Fargo’ gain in 3-D? ‘Precious’? ‘Casablanca’?” source

• $27.1
  million amount the non-3D “Date Night” made in its first week in theaters;
  their studio’s happy
• $26.9
  million amount the 3D “Clash of the Titans” made in its second week; their studio’s complaining source

• $61.5M the amount the remake of “Clash of the Titans” made this weekend
• 2.5D the derisive name for the tacked-on 3D the movie used source

• $1 billion in debt keeping it from
  taking on Netflix source

• “Alice” had a good first week, and hasn’t done bad, but it’s not epic. Tim Burton’s latest big-budget hit, which also uses the spectacular 3D technology of “Avatar” (though not as well), looked like it was on the way to a similarly epic run for a couple of weeks. But while it did good this week, it’s now clear that it’ll just be a big hit, not an epic one.

“Alice” in her third weekend

• 45% dip in box-office receipts in weekend three source

• $116M “Alice in Wonderland’s” box-office take after its first weekend
• $209M “Alice’s” second-week mark; receipts dipped 46 percent
• $265M its third-week tally; it managed to stay on top despite competition

“Avatar’s” first three weeks

• 9.8% dip in “Avatar” in its third weekend source

• $77M where “Avatar” stood after its snow-marred first weekend
• $212M “Avatar” after weekend two; it was a huge hit during the week, even
• $352M after its third weekend, it was over halfway to “Titanic’s” $600 million

Why the diverging paths?

• » Did the snow help “Avatar” build staying power? Director James Cameron miraculously had a movie with a similar box-office run to his previous film, “Titanic.” Part of that may have been due to a huge snowstorm which slammed the East Coast in its first weekend, keeping demand for the movie high when the snow was eventually cleared.
• » Blow up, then fade: One of the major differences between “Alice” and “Avatar” is that “Alice” had a more traditional path to success, one that most blockbusters have followed in the last decade. The much-hyped movie with the big first weekend often fades quickly. Some exceptions exist – “The Dark Knight,” for example, came out of the gate quicker than “Avatar” did and had some staying power, but faded by its fifth week. The secret to an “Avatar”-style run? Slow and steady wins the race.

• 115,000 the total number of movie screens in 57 countries; 85 percent don’t have digital projectors yet
• 4,000 the estimated number of projectors that can be made yearly; demand has never been higher source

• six Oscars for “The Hurt Locker,” including Best Picture and Best Director
• zero non-technical awards for megahit competitor “Avatar” (it won three)
• zero surprises – pretty much all the pre-ceremony favorites won source

• $41 million for the 3D “Alice” on Friday alone source

• Curiosity is the most powerful thing you own. Don’t put limitations on yourself. Other people will do that for you … failure has to be an option in art and exploration because it’s a leap of faith. In whatever you’re doing, failure is an option, but fear is not.
• “Avatar” director James Cameron • Giving a pretty awesome speech at the TED2010 conference today. TED, which stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design, has regular speeches like this. In Cameron’s, he talked about how his desire to explore led him to ideas like “Avatar” and “Titanic.” Part of his exploratory nature has been nurtured by his deep-sea diving. He’s spent 3,000 hours underwater over the last 40 years (and 500 inside of a submarine), which is kind of a lot. A very inspirational speech for sure. source