Analysis: What 'Avatar' does (and doesn't) tell us about going to the movies

Like "Titanic" a quarter-century ago (which is a lifetime in media years), "Avatar: The Way of Water" is swimming against the usual box-office tides -- triumphantly so. Yet searching for lessons in the film's commercial success as the industry seeks beacons of hope about movie-going defies simple answers in much the way Pandora's floating islands defy gravity.