Behind The Scenes Of Avatar ~ The Process Of Performance Capture

An intriguing look behind the scenes of the making of the box office smash Avatar and the process used to capture the actors in an almost life-like animation. From interviews with Jake Sully who plays Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana (Neytiri) and director James Cameron, with side by side shots of the actors in their weird bodysuits and the results from the film. All in all, pretty cool.

And there's word of a possible sequel to Avatar from Cameron having to do with the moons orbiting the planet Pandora, but he's just in preliminary discussions, so it could be years before we see any action on Avatar 2: Tokyo Drift ~ just kidding about that title, but Cameron is notoriously slow moving on getting projects started.

Avatar Breaks Batman's Record For Top Opening Week Box Office

The hit movie Avatar throttled the caped crusader's record in the boffo box office department, taking in an estimated $278 million in the film's opening week, as compared to the $253 million The Dark Knight garnered back in July 2008. The James Cameron-helmed sci-fi epic also took in an additional $75 million during it's 2nd weekend.

The Robert Downey Jr-Jude Law-Rachel McAdams flick Sherlock Holmes, Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel and It's Complicated (with Meryl Streep, Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin) all had good results from ticket sales.

Sherlock Holmes took in $24.9 million on it's Christmas Day opening, for a weekend total of $65 million, so it was in 2nd place overall. Another movie that has been getting a fair amount of buzz is Up in the Air, with George Clooney putting in a solid performance as a corporate downsizer, that earned almost $12 million for 5th spot overall.

Avatar is expected to hit the one billion mark in ticket sales in short order, making it easily the big movie of the year as far as money-making movies goes. As far as quality, Avatar is also a 3-D visual feast, and is expected to be a massive hit all over the world.