Avatar: The Way of Water | Official Trailer

[Machiavellian]

coolbeans said:

Runa216 said:

yes it does. It absolutely does. Movies with 'no cultural impact' don't make 2 Billion at the box office and don't spawn sequels that also make that much money. 

It may not be cultural impact in the areas YOU frequent, but to pretend it had no impact is absurd. This is proof that the movie had staying power and impact, you just may not have seen it because it was a 'general audience' thing and not a nerdcore thing like Avengers or Star Wars. (To be clear this isn't a jab at Star Wars or Avengers, just an identification of the differences in the audiences)

What specifically does that term mean to you?  Because if you're tying in "x dollars made" then I think you're missing the plot.  When I've heard that criticism I think back on qualities within the film that made a long-lasting cultural contribution.  For example:

-Part of Wayne's World's cultural impact was making Bohemian Rhapsody more popular than it was upon initial release.  It became a go-to song to blast in the car.

-A lot of Star Wars stuff: The Force, lightsabers, etc.

Beyond Cameron's 3D fetishization arriving after Avatar (which I figured is more a technological contribution), I can't really think of other cultural signifiers beyond the concept of an alien race connecting with the wildlife.

I would say that the first Avatar made and showed how a movie built from the ground up with 3D in mind could look.  It was head and shoulders above any other 3D movie and probably sold a lot of 3D TV because of how good it was even though the technology really did not take off.