A quick note, and hopefully one of the last stories we’ll have to run about Avatar breaking yet another box office record. This week, James Cameron’s current film overtook his last one in the domestic box office tally. In its full theatrical run, Titanic grossed $600.8 million while Avatar has now taken $601.2 million in only 47 days. Go ahead and cite inflation and the 3D surcharge on ticket prices as factors in Avatar’s gross; reportedly, more than 80% of Avatar’s domestic business is from 3D screenings.
For a film that was pegged as a sure-fire failure by some, beating Titanic in less than two months is a hell of a thing, even with inflation and the 3D price bump.
Over the course of the weekend, James Cameron’s Avatar was on track to beat Titanic’s record and become the top-grossing film of all time. The numbers have been verified, and Avatar’s worldwide gross stands at over $1.292 billion dollars, which tops Titanic’s $1.242 billion. The domestic record hasn’t yet fallen — by Sunday Avatar was still about $50m shy of Titanic’s $600.8m US gross. About 70% of Avatar’s revenue comes from foreign markets, compared to Titanic’s 67%.
High 3D ticket prices have helped Avatar reach that total, without a doubt. But so have Russia and China, which weren’t nearly as powerful movie markets for US films when Titanic was in theaters. Avatar is the biggest-grossing film of all time in those markets, as well as the highest-grossing American film ever to play in India. Chances that anyone will ever again doubt James Cameron have fallen significantly.
Not an Avatar fan? Take comfort in the fact that, when adjusted for inflation, Gone With the Wind is still the box office champ, with a $400m worldwide gross in 1939 translating to $6b today. Titanic’s 1997 gross would be worth $2.5b total. [THR]
Tonight, James Cameron’s Avatar will become the #2 highest grossing movie of all time, and in just 20 days of release. The sci-fi 3d film will have overtaken The Lord Of The Rings: Return Of The King, which has a worldwide total of $1,119,110,941. Of course, Cameron has a ways to go, about $725 million, if he wants to sink the Titanic, the number one highest grossing film of all time and his last narrative feature film.
via: Finke
After delays forestalled the original opening date, Avatar opened in China on Monday and quickly took in about 33.03m yuan (USD$4.8m) to become the biggest-ever film open in the country’s history. The previous record holder opened just this past December. Zhang Yimou’s A Simple Noodle Story (the director’s loose remake of Blood Simple) took in 21m yuan on December 10.
As when James Cameron’s movie opened in the States and the UK, the film faced highly inclement weather in many major markets, says Variety. High ticket prices (up to 150 yuan / $22 in Beijing) helped the record-breaking take. Reactions to the film so far seem to be in line primarily with those heard around the world: the technology on display overcomes any other shortcomings. Cameron’s Titanic did well in China, too, with a 320m yuan take.
Pirated DVDs have also been selling quickly, says Variety, based on conversations with street vendors.
Reuters is reporting that for the first time since 2002, consumers in the United States spent more to see movies theatrically than purchasing films on Blu-ray and DVD. According to the figures from Adams Media Research, U.S. consumers spent an estimated $8.73 billion for movies on DVDs and Blu-Ray, a drop of 13 percent from the year before.
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Going a bit against the grain when it comes to piracy discussions, Reid Rosefelt over at the Speedcine blog makes an interesting case why Wolverine’s unprecedented leak may have actually helped the film. Rosefelt compares the film’s $85 million opening weekend gross against other major release openings throughout 2009, and shows that it actually doesn’t stack up too badly.
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Remember a month ago when we were having conversations questioning if Avatar was going to earn its money back? If they film could cross $600 million worldwide? Would the movie be a success? Would audiences really go see this movie with ten foot tall blue cat people?
James Cameron’s Avatar has crossed the $1 billion mark at the worldwide box office in just 17 days, surpassing Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight to become #4 of all time. By the end of the week, the film is expected to surpass Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King to become the #2 worldwide release of all time. Of course, for now, Cameron’s Titanic remains seated at #1. James Cameron has become the first director to have two films earn $1 Billion. And by the end of the week, it should be up to $3 billion total between the two movies.
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The IMAX Corporation has sent out a press release announcing that James Cameron’s Avatar is continuing to shatter IMAX box office records. Highlights Include:
- Domestic second weekend gross of approximately $8.8 million
- International second weekend gross of approximately $3.6 million
- IMAX theatres were in 17 of the top 20 locations nationwide
Read the full press release after the jump.
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Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes edged out James Cameron’s Avatar to win Christmas Day at the box office, $24.9 million to $23.6 million. Avatar is currently tracking to smash $200 million in just 10 days of release (on Sunday) and should hit $250 million by Wednesday (in only 13 days of release).
But the bigger news is that, even though we’re in a recession, Christmas Day ticket sales have destroyed previous years records. The record for a Christmas Day opening was set last year when Marley and Me grossed $14.4 million. In fact, if you add the grosses of the the top three films of Christmas Day 2008 you would get $35 million. If you add the Christmas gross of this year’s top three films, you get $63 million. [reuters]
Posted on Monday, December 21st, 2009 by David Chen
[Update: This morning, the estimates for Avatar's domestic and worldwide box office take were revised. Avatar performed better on Sunday than initial estimates. The headline has been updated with the correct figures. The following article will be updated as more details come in.]
On this week’s episode of the /Filmcast: After Dark, veteran film journalist Anne Thompson stopped by to discuss Avatar and its box office prospects. While our full podcast review of Avatar won’t happen until Tuesday night, Anne made two points/predictions that I found particularly interesting: 1) She predicted a $1 billion worldwide box office take for the film when all is said and done - a remarkable achievement for any movie, but not as high as the $1.8 billion of Cameron’s Titanic, and 2) There was a high possibility that Avatar would not open as strong as other blockbusters (i.e. over $100 million domestic for opening weekend); it’s based on an entirely new property and the marketing featuring the Na’vi imagery hasn’t been as good as it could have been. Despite this, she predicted, word of mouth will carry it for weeks to come.
It now looks as though Anne’s predictions are quickly on track to becoming a reality. Avatar took in $77 million domestically and $242 worldwide (i.e. North America plus 106 foreign markets) in its opening weekend.
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