Box Office Analysis Week 4
Source: www.boxofficemojo.com
His future’s so bright, Cameron’s
gotta wear shades…
Alright, let’s get all the AVATAR records and talk out of the way first. The film recently became the biggest grossing movie of all-time (worldwide) as it pranced past James Cameron’s previous record-holder, TITANIC, which had made $1,840,000,000 around the world. AVATAR, which is still going strong by the way, is already at $2,039,2000 and counting. That’s on the worldwide front though. In terms of domestic box-office, TITANIC still holds the top spot with $600M, but unless something cataclysmic happens in the world in the next couple of days, methinks AVATAR will surpass that figure as well, as it presently hovers around the $595M mark and is still the #1 in America today.
Even for those who love to discuss how inflation should matter in these discussions, AVATAR is presently the #21 movie of all-time when adjusted for inflation. Not too shabby. And in case you’re keeping score at home, this would be the 7th weekend in a row that AVATAR is the #1 movie in the country, and even though some of us thought that Mel Gibson’s EDGE OF DARKNESS might push it from the top spot, the truth is that the fight wasn’t even close with AVATAR in first place with $30M over the past three days, while Gibson’s flick came in 2nd place with about $17M. Gibson’s last “big flick”, SIGNS, had opened with $60M back in 2002, and ended up grossing about $227M when all was said and done.
What’s even nuttier about all this AVATAR success is that the film still seems to have massive legs. Generally movies lose about 40-50% of their audience from week to week (LEGION lost about 61% of its audience from last weekend), but AVATAR is the exception that keeps on ticking, as it only lost 14% of its audience from last weekend. In other words, people are going to see this movie again and again and again and again (see our RECENT POLL about how many times our readers have seen it so far). Oh and did I mention how the film will likely be nominated for tons of Oscar nominations this coming Tuesday, which will likely give it an even greater boost? (not to mention, if/when it wins??) Phew! I wish I was a lint in James Cameron’s pocket, yo!
Paul Dergarabedian, box-office expert and man with a great last name, said today: “It’s everybody going repeatedly. At first it was more of a fanboy experience, and then the word got out.” The one other new film of the weekend, WHEN IN ROME, opened decently in 3rd place with about $12M.
The 2 films that were knocked out of the top 10 this weekend include EXTRAORDINARY MEASURES ($10M) after only 1 week in the top 10, and THE SPY NEXT DOOR ($21), which will hopefully be the last crappy Jackie Chan “kid’s movie” that we see for some time.
…Download Australian & US Results Here
To view the AVRRA’s Top 20 for week ending 24 Jan 2010: Click here