I am sad that the dark knight did not get this honer BUT money is money (551 million last I looked which was 5 minutes ago) this could greatly help the econmy which means more jobs this is awesome even thou the tickets are higher people are paying for it

This is my favorite movie of all time. I saw it eight time in eight days. By the way, the closet theater is forty-five minutes away from my house. This movie will, in my opinion, redefine the way many viewers rate future movies. nuff said

I think due to cost of tickets, its about time that movies success should be considered in number tickets sold instead of money made. If that were the case, Gone With the Wind would still be number 1 & Star Wars number 2.

James Cameron: "Im King of the World!"

Holy shit - he was right!

Wow, that seemed almost too easy.

Right on, for Avatar.

I wouldn't mind seeing where it fits into all-time ticket sales though.

This makes me happy and sad. I'm glad that this film has had success. Up until a few days ago, I was really thinking this movie would barely make a profit. To see it go way past that is really encouraging. I'm sad because I wish there was a little more depth to the film that would put it among the greats of all time. Goes to show how profit and money isn't everything.

It's a shame too, because LOTR: Return of the King was the better film.

Did anyone else side with the Miners rather than the Na'vi?

1. Earth miners need jobs!
2. The environment can grow back
3. Na'vi don't need unobtainium
4. The Miners could have tunneled instead of quarried. "I drink your milkshake!"
5. Earth survival is more important than the Na'vi homes

I was cheering for the Marines the whole time.

In Sweden, Avatar is a gargantuan hit and it's attracting people from all different cultures and ages. Every single 3D-showing have been sold out for weeks now. I definitely think it could beat Titanic because public demand will stay strong during the winter so there is no reason to pull the movie from theaters early.

It might have been nice in 3D, but in regular theaters it was a regular movie. I don't get it.

I will say I was a big non believer the trailers didn't get me but when I saw that movie I was blown away, and I'm still blown away. And I'm even more blown away at how the general audience has responded like they have I mean, Jesus, number 2 in 20 days?!?!

Apparently the TV rights of Avatar are going to be sold to FX for 25 million dollars. On a related note, I wonder how the sales of the ancillary products are going.

Woo hoo!!! We did it!

**Que the Auld Lang Syne song**

Yes, we did! effin A!

What (or where) is the breakdown of grosses by country? I understand that it's made well over $400 million in the U.S., but where is it making the other $700 million?

damn, first to get two billion dollar grossing movies, and they are the #1 and #2. impressive as hell.

James Cameron is the king of the Box Office.

Well, that's depressing.

I JUST now overheard my wife and her girlfriends chit-chatting away over coffee. One just voiced 'Oh, I have to go see, what's it called, Avita or something. Apparently it's reaaaalllly good." To which a friend corrected her 'Avatar' and they all agreed they should go together on the weekend because one of the husbands said it was the best. Thing. EVER...

Word of mouth at its best. (Or worst, depending on what you thought of Avatar.)

That's the same way the flu spreads! Word of mouth can be the most helpful and most destructive thing to entertainment. I never fully trust what people tell me about things. For example... many people think McDonald's food is good. I honestly don't know what makes this movie so amazing to people. In fact it just reminds me of a certain Phantom Menace, only in 3D. All CGI, no story, plot holes, and lame characters.

Hey, come on, it's not that bad. I don't like it either but damn.

I have to agree. I know women in their 40's / 50's who have absolutely NO interest in Sci-Fi, who are raving about this film like it's the best thing since bra burning...

That's how Titanic got so big. Titanic didn't even win its opening weekend if memory serves correctly.

Remember when James used to make awesome movies instead of a bunch of hippie propaganda?

Good times.

PIRANHA 2 : THE SPAWNING, FTW!

So what was Terminator 1-2?
It was pretty hippie-ish, "DONT TRUST THE MACHINES MANNN!!"

But seriously, calling a an action/fantasy movie propaganda is fucking ridiculous.

Does anyone else think it's weird that a movie that pretty much came out of the blue (no pun intended) has made a billion dollars in less than a month?

Even The Dark Knight, a freaking BATMAN movie, struggled to make it past a billion, and this movie just comes out and starts breaking records right from the start?

Something's not right.

Avatar didn't quite come out of the blue. Anyone with reasonable geek-cred was anticipating it for a year or so and when the first footage started to appear, there was some buzz.

But yeah, it really didn't have really high Q quotient prior to hitting theatres.

It's gotten amazing word of mouth and in this era of "I'll just wait for it", it has the definite EVENT aura. And this is well after things like T4 and Tx2 that tried to force that sort of aura on themselvse.

Well, while it is startling to me as well, recall that tickets for movies in 3D tend to cost more. Also, the film might have tapped into Titanic's consumer base after all, assuming the ad campaign's linking of the two films hit home, which might have helped it hit the ground running.

3D tickets do not cost more. The extra amount you pay is for the glasses, not the movie itself. If I remember correctly, Avatar sees no extra money from 3D tickets as opposed to 2D tickets.

Now, IMAX on the other hand? That might a different beast altogether. But 3D does not net the film anymore money than 2D would.

Well, you might be right and Avatar may not get a piece of the extra money for 3d, but gross $$ values do include that extra money - it's revenue. You're talking about what Avatar will net, and that's not what is being discussed here.

Interesting -- so the extra cost of the 3D ticket isn't added to the final box office tally?
Do you have a source for this? I'd like to read more about that...

Yea you're right...its a conspiracy...

Could be the Cameron brand of big spectacle film making. Or maybe its a rare combination of ticket prices, entertainment, shrewd distribution scheduling, and a genuine sense of something revolutionary.

But yes, it does seem strange that Avatar has chugged steadily to such heights without creating a visible buzz the way Twilight, for instance, had. Maybe Avatar's success has less to do with the geek crowd than normal moviegoers who just want good entertainment.

"Maybe Avatar's success has less to do with the geek crowd than normal moviegoers who just want good entertainment."

Ding Ding Ding Ding .. winner, winner, winner!

Gman: James Cameron is the best film maker of all time? Come on. He's proven that he can make a ton of money, but Michael Bay does as well - you going to add him to your list?

I really hope you're kidding.

Joel + Ethan Cohen are the best working filmmakers today. You might get a tie between Scorsese and Woody Allen for second. The end.

Wow, your list of best film makers of all time, is extremely modern, and American influenced. Here is a more complete list (yet still lacking about 10-15 directors) that stretches back to the beginning of film making and has foreign directors as well.
How about:
Akira Kurosawa (Top 3 film director of all time)
John Ford (great director, influenced by Kurosawa)
Orson Wells
Satyajit Ray (Watch his Apu Trilogy, absolutely brilliant)
Alfred Hitchcock
Stanley Kubrick
Woody Allen
Frank Capra
Walt Disney
Clint Eastwood
Jean-Luc Godard (best director of French New Wave Movement)
John Lasseter (you know him from his Disney/Pixar work)
David Lynch
Jean Renoir
D.W. Griffith (first largely successful film director)
John Huston
Buster Keaton

Would Tim Burton not belong in this discussion somewhere?

Oh, I forgot Zemeckis! He should be tied for third.

replying to Ryan:

Best ALIVE Directors

1. James Cameron
2. Quentin Tarantino
3. Steven Spielberg
4. Christopher Nolan
5. Martin Scorcese
6. Darren Aronofsky
7. David Fincher
8. Peter Jackson
9. Jason Reitman
10. Sam Raimi

You forgot Francis Ford Coppola, The Cohen Brothers, maybe the Farley Brothers ...

I'd like to see James Cameron make a decent film on a $7,000,000 budget. And no, not in 1984 dollars.

Replying to gman

It goes
1.James Cameron
2.Quentin Tarantino
3.Steven Spielberg
4.Christopher Nolan

my inner fanboy had to say something and thats: why has no one mentioned Martin Scorsese... seriously he's so much more talented then Spielberg that I can't believe so many people when they think of directors say Spielberg... he's good but he's so safe when it comes to movies and the filmmaking process in general.

I think it's because Cameron is the best film maker of all time. I know there are many greats stretching all the way back to before the invention of 'talkies'. But James Cameron is probably the best film maker ever.

#1 James Cameron
#2 Steven Spielberg
#3 Ridley Scott
#4 <who cares>

this guy now has the #1 and #2 highest grossing movies of all time. this man can do anything

He is the real life George Lucas.

*gasp* Do you think we could actually persuade him to remake Episodes 1-3? Id pay the 3D price of a ticket to see a James Cameron Jar Jar creation.

Impressive.

All I know is that I enjoyed myself and I'll be watching this film again with friends on Thursday for the second time in theaters.

Funny to think back to when so many thought this was going to be a complete flop and that it wasn't going to "connect" with the public.