Avatar Blows Past Its Kickstarter Goal of $50k in Fewer Than 90 Minutes

Fewer than 90 minutes after announcing their Kickstarter campaign -- and within just few hours of making it live -- Swedish metal group Avatar had raised over $50k for their forthcoming Avatar Country Film, blowing past their financial goal for the next 20 days.

"We didn't know what to expect and we still don't," admits vocalist Johannes Eckerström. "These things are impossible to quantify, and it's just a humbling experience. Now is not the time to celebrate, though. The people have told us to get to work and work we shall."

The band is raising money to fund a featurette to accompany their latest album, the concept-heavy Avatar Country, which celebrates the creation of an entire Avatar "kingdom." The insanely rabid fan response to the announcement is a testament not only to the band's connection with its fans, but to the strength of the concept itself.

"I think it's a great project," Eckerström continues." We have always used ourselves as our demographic and we want to see this. We've been excited about this for so long and it is great to finally get to share it."

Meanwhile, the pledges only continue to roll in -- and even though the campaign has exceeded expectations, they won't waste a single penny beyond their initial goal.

"The goal we set was a minimum to make it humanly possible to pull this off," says Eckerström. "Anything above that assures the quality of the end result."

And if they raise enough money, will the band create its own literal kingdom in which fans can live?

"That could be the stretch goal for reaching $1,000,000,000,000," Eckerström ponders. "We're going to need to finance an army I guess."

Check out the new movie trailer the band has just posted today:

And you can pledge your allegiance to the kingdom via the Kickstarter here!