• “Have you seen ‘Titanic?’ That’s exactly what it was.” The Italian cruiseliner that went aground near the coast of Tuscany on Friday evoked a deadly situation that, to say the least, harkened back to that fateful incident. The Costa Concordia crashed on the tiny island of Giglio, forcing a tip-over that killed three and left nearly 70 others unaccounted for. The ship had a very chaotic, disorganized evacuation — putting roughly 4,200 people in danger — partly because the crew delayed the evacuation drill until days after the cruiseliner started moving. The ship was supposed to have an evacuation drill on Saturday, despite the fact that some had been on the ship for several days. source

• $595
  million “Avatar’s” box-office take in the U.S. after a 7th weekend at the top; it needs $6 million to top “Titanic”
• $2
  billion the James Cameron flick’s worldwide box office take, which is well into the record books already source

• “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
  million needed to topple “Titanic” and its $1.8 billion worldwide total

North American stats

• $41.3 million the film’s weekend box office after five weeks of release
• $491.8 million the film’s total box office – it should top $500 million Monday
• 32
  days time 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:
  

• $1.8 billion total lifetime run – in 1998 money (holy crap)

• $200 million budget for what was expected to be a huge bomb
• $600 million in domestic grosses – in 1998 money! Holy crap!

• $28.6M Titanic’s first-weekend box office take – decent, not spectacular
• $35.5M Titanic’s second-weekend take – it went up by an astonishing 23.8%
• $36M Titanic’s biggest week, which didn’t come until week six, by the way source

• How Avatar’s catching up:
  

• $1 billion worldwide already – in just three weeks!

• $280 million the most likely budget for “Avatar”; totals have varied as widely as $250 million and $500 million
• $150 million has been spent on marketing the movie alone, which Fox is taking on the cost of

• $77M Avatar’s first-weekend box office take; it was hurt by snow
• $75M Avatar’s second-weekend take – down only 1.8%
• $352M Avatar’s domestic gross after a $68 million third weekend source

• The 3D wildcard:
  

• $3-5 the 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.”

• 97 years of being known as a Titanic survivor, and nothing but source

• I think I won’t do it again: a) I can’t keep getting away with it, and b) I don’t want to become ‘that actress who always gets her kit off.’
• Kate Winslet • on her decision to stop getting naked for the camera. The actress, nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for “The Reader,” apparently does it too much and is worried about her onscreen reputation. If she changes her mind, a bunch of perverts probably wouldn’t mind. • source