‘The Last Airbender’ Costs An Arm, A Leg & A Bald Kid (Or $280 Million)

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.