Avatar, as you may have heard, is kind of a big deal. It’s now the highest-grossing movie ever internationally, and it’ll likely break Titanic‘s $600 million record for domestic grosses in the next week or so.
So, with all that money floating around (so to speak), lots of folks are trying to capitalize on Avatar‘s success—and that includes the government of China.
In an effort to pull in some fresh tourist coin, folks in the Zhangiajie province of China have renamed a picturesque pillar of rock “Avatar Hallelujah Mountain.” The striking geological feature, which had previously been called “Southern Sky Column,” is reported to have been an inspiration for Avatar‘s magnificent floating chunks of rock (though, it should be noted, the Chinese version is rooted firmly to the ground).
“Pandora is far but Zhangjiajie is near,” the province’s official website proclaims. According to Reuters, tourists can sign up for a “Magical Tour to Avatar-Pandora.”
Some may be surprised that China would scrap a perfectly good name simply to capitalize on a successful film. But really, we’re all about making a buck these days, and I think it’s a trend that might catch on.
Perhaps vast swaths of barren New Mexico, where The Book of Eli was filmed, could be renamed “Eli’s Post Apocalyptic Plains.” Maybe the owners of the Baltimore Ravens could rename the team “The Blind Siders” and slap a picture of Sandra Bullock on the team helmet. Maybe all of London could redub itself “Sherlock Holmesville“—at least until the next big movie to feature the city comes along (“Wolfmanburg?”). The possibilities are endless.
Personally, I can’t wait to go to Home Depot and buy me a specially marketed, retractable “Extraordinary Measurer.”
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