New York Magazine 's Year End Wrap-Up
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A Very, Very Big Year
In 2010, over-the-top was often just right.
By Adam Sternbergh
Published Dec 5, 2010
If you were to gather the culture stars of 2010 in a room and ask them to retroactively pitch their biggest ideas, it would sound like an inmate’s meeting at an asylum for the delusionally grandiose....Yet if there was one thread that connected the highlights (and a few failures) of the last year, it was this: the Grand Gesture, the Big Gamble, the all-out Swing for the Fences....
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Avatar
Yes, technically it was released in 2009—December 18, to be exact. But subtract that half-month of revenue and it was still the top-grossing film of 2010—and of all time. Prior to the film’s opening, one skeptical article asked, “Can a movie studio make money on a film based on an original and unfamiliar story, with no Hollywood superstars, a vanishing DVD market, and a price tag approaching $500 million?”
Answer: Yes.