“Titanic was a ship. Avatar’s a rocket ship.” That’s how Chris Aronson, Fox’s senior vice-president of domestic distribution, put the success of “Avatar,” which is showing few signs of slowing down weeks after its release. It’s quite possible it could pass Titanic’s $601 million total by the beginning of February. Here are some numbers on the horse race with history:
Worldwide totals so far
$1.6
billion already, after just five weeks of release – holy freaking crap!
$237
millionneeded to topple “Titanic” and its $1.8 billion worldwide total
North American stats
$41.3 millionthe film’s weekend box office after five weeks of release
$491.8 millionthe film’s total box office – it should top $500 million Monday
32
daystime it will take “Avatar” to reach that total – it took “Titanic” 98 source
Avatar is looking good in its third weekend, dipping just 9% from last week. Not bad for a movie that had a relatively modest launch for a blockbuster. The secret to its success? The same as “Titanic” – staying power. But even if James Cameron’s latest can’t keep up, his trump card might be an even bigger deal.
Titanic’s track record:
$1.8billion total lifetime run – in 1998 money (holy crap)
$200 millionbudget for what was expected to be a huge bomb
$600 millionin domestic grosses – in 1998 money! Holy crap!
$28.6MTitanic’s first-weekend box office take – decent, not spectacular
$35.5MTitanic’s second-weekend take – it went up by an astonishing 23.8%
$36MTitanic’s biggest week, which didn’t come until week six, by the way source
How Avatar’s catching up:
$1billion worldwide already – in just three weeks!
$280 millionthe most likely budget for “Avatar”; totals have varied as widely as $250 million and $500 million
$150 millionhas been spent on marketing the movie alone, which Fox is taking on the cost of
$77MAvatar’s first-weekend box office take; it was hurt by snow
$75MAvatar’s second-weekend take – down only 1.8%
$352MAvatar’s domestic gross after a $68 million third weekend source
The 3D wildcard:
$3-5the markup the 3D adds to ticket prices source
Big investment Cameron’s film took years to build because of the fact that the technology had to come first, both for filming and in the theater. Cameron paid to build the technology himself along with a bunch of investors.
Residual effect Fortunately for Cameron, he can sell the cameras to other filmmakers. “Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D” has already used it. Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson’s “The Adventures of Tintin” soon will.
Cash for conversions Even better for studios, the technology is relatively easy to build into older films. For $30 million, a popular hit like, say, “Titanic,” can have a brand new life in 3D. It’s like a money machine for Hollywood. source
Will it beat “Titanic”?
Before inflation, probably. After, it depends. It’s probably not likely that the movie will hold up sixteen straight weeks at No. 1 like Titanic, but it’ll have a good shot of holding on tight thanks to the fact that it’s going to be in IMAX (where it’s made $66 million already) for months. But at the very least, it’s looking like it has more staying power than “The Dark Knight,” the biggest hit of the naughts. Well, before “Avatar.”
Talk about killer PR for James Cameron and crew. The First Family went to go see Avatar today, which has made $268 million already in box-office receipts in less than three weeks. But so as not to disrupt filmgoers surprised by the sight of the president, they got their own screen in Honolulu to watch it on. The president gets some pretty sweet treatment, guys. souce