doubleofive said:

Yes, Lucas of that quote would have died seeing the cash Avatar raked in. Of course, by that time, Lucas had changed his mind and denied ever saying that.

I mean, back in 2006 we hit a point where they were releasing some really painful to watch films and passing them off as exciting blockbusters. I fell asleep during the Incredible Hulk, I can't ever remember falling asleep during a film I paid money to see in the theater before or after that point. And King Kong was absolutely awful.

The studios blamed the Hulk's failure on piracy. Apparently George Lucas blamed King Kong's failure on the decline of the blockbuster. Seems nobody was stopping to take into consideration the slight possibility that both films just weren't worth going to see. Transformers, G.I. Joe, Avatar, and plenty of other blockbusters have done extremely well in recent years. Regardless of rampant piracy and the economy.