Avatar dethroned by....

[tazber]

Posted: 2/7/10 at 9:37am

...Dear John.

Did not see that one coming.





Final numbers

Updated On: 2/7/10 at 09:37 AM

[HellsBells2]

Posted: 2/7/10 at 9:46am

WOW, that is hard to believe. And with Valentine's Day next weekend - date night, will surely push it up there.

[tazber]

Posted: 2/7/10 at 9:50am

Well, I gather that if you're in the mood for a 3 hankie movie this is it. And The Notebook was so good I can see where people would excited for this.

I'm sure it's absurdly manipulative, but sometimes you just want a few tears yanked and willingly submit to such ersatz emotion.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 2/7/10 at 9:52am

Never underestimate the power of a tear-jerker.

[JerseyGirl2]

Posted: 2/7/10 at 11:52am

I am avoiding it until there isn't an ocean between me and the wife-to-be.

[StageManager2]

Posted: 2/7/10 at 1:11pm

Finally, one record AVATAR was unable to beat fairly.

TITANIC -- 15 weeks at #1
AVATAR -- 7 weeks at #1

[muscle23ftl]

Posted: 2/7/10 at 1:13pm

Avatar and Titanic both sucked!
And so does Dear John, you couldn't pay me to see any of them again.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 2/7/10 at 1:15pm

How has AVATAR been unfairly breaking records?

[Q]

Posted: 2/7/10 at 1:27pm

Roscoe - I think Stagey is referring to the elevated admission cost for 3D.

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 2/7/10 at 1:30pm

Please shoot Nicholas Sparks now, please. Thank you.

[StageManager2]

Posted: 2/7/10 at 1:44pm

Not just 3D, but IMAX as well. Both TITANIC and AVATAR were released around the same time (Dec. 19 and Dec. 18. respectively) and in the same time period TITANIC sold more tickets. So far, AVATAR has sold 60.7 million tickets domestically (45.5 million in 3D/IMAX) and in the same time frame TITANIC sold 64 million in regular tickets. But if you were to take AVATAR's 60.7 million tickets and adjusted them to regular ticket prices, then its gross wouldn't be as big or greater than TITANIC's. Bottom line: AVATAR made more money, but more people went to see TITANIC.

Furthermore, I feel AVATAR surpassing TITANIC is like a juiced up athlete (i.e. Mark McGuire, Barry Bonds) breaking a long-standing record.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 2/7/10 at 1:47pm

I can't wait to see DEAR JOHN. Love Channing. Love a good tear jerker. 1+1=Heaven.

[Eris0303]

Posted: 2/7/10 at 1:49pm

I heard on the radio a few weeks ago that Avatar is actually in the teens on the list of "Most Tickets Sold". That honor still belongs to Gone With the Wind.

[StageManager2]

Posted: 2/7/10 at 2:05pm

^^^
Yeah, GONE WITH THE WIND sold more tickets (202,044,600), followed by STAR WARS (178,119,600) and THE SOUND OF MUSIC (142,415,400). The remaining seven in the Top 10 are:

ET - 141,854,300
THE TEN COMMANDMENTS - 131,000,000
TITANIC - 128,345,900
JAWS - 128,078,800
DOCTOR ZHIVAGO - 124,135,500
THE EXORCIST - 110,568,700
SNOW WHITE - 109,000,000

AVATAR comes in at #21.

As you can see, TITANIC is the only movie in the past 28 years to make the cut. So even when unadjusted for inflation, its gross was impressive ($1.8 billion worldwide in regular ticket prices). Recent heavyweights like LOTR: THE RETURN OF THE KING ($1.1 billion) and THE DARK KNIGHT ($1 billion) didn't come close. But I'm sure they would've if they'd had the advantage of of 3D/IMAX.

Updated On: 2/7/10 at 02:05 PM

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 2/7/10 at 2:27pm

In this universe of fractured corporate conglomerate entertainment, I don't think there's any "fair" or universal way of measuring the assorted income streams. It makes no sense to have to separate out Imax and 3D admission prices, it's not like they were "cheating" by releasing it in that format and when audiences got to the theaters it was just a standard 70mm print. The movie was released in that format.

I don't think there's any point in getting bent out of shape because, why bother? Also, you start to sound like a real geezer, "In my day, in the Hollywood's Golden era of 1977...!"