Whoa! THE LAST AIRBENDER’s Total Budget Is $280 Million!

Real quick now, Via LA TIMES, Paramount Pictures which is The Viacom Inc.-owned studio and sister company of Nickelodeon financed the upcoming M. Night Shyamalan-directed film THE LAST AIRBENDER.. production cost was $150 Million and Marketing budget was $130 Million for a total of $280 Million. Quite a gamble on a director whose last movie, The Happening only banked $64 Million domestically after a $48 Million budget…
THE LAST AIRBENDER’s $280 Million is more than twice as expensive as any of Shymalan’s previous eight films, this particular film doesn’t even have particular famous stars that could attract box office money like Bruce Willis (The Sixth Sense) or Mel Gibson (Signs).
But Paramount isn’t worried because they believe in Shymalan’s vision and that it would pay off. After all, they are planning this to be a start of a trilogy of a new family franchise, on top of that.. the cartoon series/material that it’s based on already has a huge fanbase.
But keep in mind that THE LAST AIRBENDER opens a day after The Twilight Saga: ECLIPSE… tough competition. Will the tweens and twi-hards and team Edward/team Jacob fangirls would check out THE LAST AIRBENDER after watching their most anticipated movie of the year? Or will they watch ECLIPSE the second or third time again and completely forget that there’s even another summer blockbuster that opens on that same weekend?