Nothing can stop the reign of Avatar. A scant 16-percent drop in its sixth weekend of release has helped James Cameron’s sci-fi spectacle become the second highest-grossing movie of all time. In contrast, the new releases failed to make a significant mark, with the apocalyptic film Legion performing strongest with an estimated $18.2 million and a second-place showing.
Avatar earned an additional $36 million this weekend, climbing to $552.8 million domestically and surpassing The Dark Knight’s $533.3 million domestic haul. If it continues to drop in the 20-percent range as it has the last few weekends — this time it only fell 16 percent — it’s on track to is top Titanic’s $600.8 million by mid-February. Worldwide, Avatar is also the second-highest grossing movie of all time at $1.8 billion, trailing Titanic by less than $7 million.
In contrast, none of the new releases is likely to have much of an afterlife. Legion may have bowed in second place, but it earned a dismal C- from exit pollster Cinemascore, meaning there is unlikely to be much positive word-of-mouth for this movie. Twentieth Century Fox’s The Tooth Fairy, scored better with audiences (it’s Cinemascore is an A-) but with a $14.5 million gross — and a fourth place debut — that portends an inauspicious future for this family-friendly comedy starring Dwayne Johnson.
And then there is Extraordinary Measures. This debut film from nascent studio CBS Film didn’t connect with audiences. Earning only $7 million for a three-day frame, the Harrison Ford/Brendan Fraser medical weepie landed in seventh place and will likely be out of the top 10 by next weekend when the Disney comedy When in Rome opens opposite Mel Gibson’s R-rated revenge drama Edge of Darkness.
For second week holdovers, The Book of Eli and The Lovely Bones both performed strongly. Eli dropped 48 percent to land in third place with $17 million. It’s total cume stands at $62 million. The Lovely Bones also dropped 48 percent, bringing its total gross to $32 million. The rest of the top ten included Sherlock Holmes, grossing an additional $7.1 million for a sixth slot, and Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel earning $6.5 million for eighth place. It’s Complicated and The Spy Next Door rounded out the top ten with $6.2 and $4.7 million, respectively. The weekend was still down compared to last year at this time when Paul Blart: Mall Cop claimed the top spot for the second weekend in a row.
The “Rock” has officially sunk to a new low.Wow.I think he needs to go back to wrestling.
Fizzuck You!
You are the worst
Listen up Ulf, you’re a dead man. I will eat your brains
Avatar is only $6 million behind Titanic’s worldwide. Avatar is likely to make over $2 billion. Insane.
A V A T A R
Domestic: $552,797,000 30.1%
+ Foreign: $1,283,346,000 69.9%
= Worldwide: $1,836,143,000
T I T A N I C
Domestic: $600,788,188 32.6%
+ Foreign: $1,242,091,767 67.4%
= Worldwide: $1,842,879,955
Agreed. $2 Billion will be the new benchmark after this. Whine on, inflationists!
based on actual ticket sales alone, Avatar doesn’t even make the top ten.
which means people are still willing to pay top dollar. that argument doesn’t prove anything. there’s no wa to analyze how it would do if it was less money
What would you rather have… the most tickets sold or the most money made? Kinda of a no brainer.
Days in domestic theaters.
T I T A N I C : 287 days.
A V A T A R : 39 days.
You can’t deny THOSE numbers, no matter HOW you look at them!
I was the first to predict a $2 billion on Avatar’s 2nd weekend (check it out). But I was wrong. I’m reviewing my expectations to $2.7 billion, surpassing Titanic even in attendance! Watch…
$2.3 – $2.4 billion seems more likely by the time Avatar leaves theaters completely in two/three months.
somebody was bored writing this article when they decided to use portends, inauspicious, and nascent
That’s probably why it took so long to post this,she had to figure out how to use those words in a sentence.
Yes, next time she should dumb it down a bit….as to not offend anyone without a high school education
I understood every single one of those words without having to even think of consulting a dictionary and I appreciate seeing some intelligent writing online. Reading most posts on this site make me feel that the education system has failed MISERABLY. People who complain show their VAST ignorance.
She used big words… but her grammar suffered. “None” is singular; therefore her sentence should read “In contrast, none of the new releases is likely to have much of an afterlife.”
@ acaseofgeo. can you find a bigger word? VAST just seems too simplistic, especially for a capitalized word. i feel like you’re insulting my intelligence…after all, i am no ignoramus
Yeah, seriously, those are such recondite–or, uh, esoteri–or abstru–no, wait . . . that won’t do.
Big words. Such. Big. Words!
Especially “inauspicious”! Wow.
Awesome comment
Eat some shizzit
You are the dumbest
I love that the comment is from “MadKrunk” too… Completely full of win.
The weekend was actually up 6% from last year
Who the F writes these articles? EW has really gone downhill since last year. They post their BO articles 8 hours after everyone else, they’re inacurate, short, barely helpful or detailed. Everyone dislikes it, they should fire this woman she’s awful at ehr job
What is a good site to go to for box office recaps?
If you just want the numbers, go to boxofficemojo.com
Well, at least both you and the author of the article suck at spelling.
I think they do a good job with box office news! While the articles aren’t long, the predictions are usually pretty spot on. Unless you run a niche box office site, I can see why it would be hard to be super-thorough. Anyway, here are my thoughts on the weekend:
tabonga, I kill you scum
the-numbers.com
WOW The Tooth Fair scored an A- WOW!!
I’d much rather see Avatar for the third time than go to Legion, Tooth fairy or that crappy Harrison Ford Hallmark movie.
NERD ALERT!
There are other things to do besides go to the movies…
avatar is amazing and deserves what its getting
I strongly reccomend “The Book of Eli”, it was much better than the critics gave it credit for
I second that opinion. It was a very good movie.
I saw the movie last night. I really enjoyed it. I was surprised by how good it was.
I second that too or I mean therd it jew no wat i mean, haha, yes yes you do. let me lol, as your jaws will hit da floor going omg.
I dont know what Im writing, but I do know that the book of Eli is alot better than what the critics say, give it a chance you will like it.
by mid-february?? Avatar is likely to pass Titanic bye next sunday.. i think… though when it does pass it.. it will still be way behind in ticket sales.. its cool i liked both films.
It’s actually quite possible it could pass Titanic by next Sunday. It only needs about $50 million to do it, and it’s very possible that it can take in $20 million between Monday and Thursday, and another $30 million next weekend.
I think inflation kind of makes up for how far behind Avatar is in ticket sales. I’ve seen a lot of people arguing that Avatar isn’t selling the same amount of tickets that Titanic did, but I don’t think it’s a fair argument. With home viewing taking on different forms these days than it did even 12 years ago, naturally ticket numbers aren’t going to be what they were back then. In 1997, piracy wasn’t at the level it is today, VHS was still prominent, Blu-Ray wasn’t even a thought in anyone’s mind, and home theaters have made the home viewing experience equal to or better than going to the theater. So for a movie to accomplish what Avatar has in this day and age is still nothing short of astonishing, and inflation seems to account for the changes in movie viewing.
Amen to that, I agree with you 100%.
Times are so different in just 12 years that Im surprised at the success the film has had. There are so many avenues to go now that I sometimes wonder when it will be the time that theaters start to really close down.
here is my point..
As much as I love Avatar because it was a great movie.. I do think movies should be ranked by number of tickets sold.. Sure a lot of people can argue that Gone with the Wind didn’t deal with competition from dvd’s, cable, tv or any of those other forms… but it wasn’t the only movie out there either.. the movie was simply ahead of it’s time.. i mean way ahead.. same thing with Star Wars, which came out about 45 or so years later.. it was another that was so far ahead of its time… that’s why they are number 1 and number 2.. and if they re-released them then so what.. it’s the exact same movie and people went to watch them again.. the popluation was about 140 million when Gone with the Wind first came out.. and it sold slightly ove 200 million tickets.. you just have to give it credit because it was ahead of it’s time..
How can people even compare ticket sales when Titanic played in theaters for almost 10 months while Avatar has been in theaters for 6 weeks. F@#kin morons. And who cares about the domestic take. Avatar will be the number one movie of all time next week.
I’ve seen Avatar 5 times. Yeah so shoot me.
bang!
Funniest reply EVER!
This is awesome news! I’m looking forward to seeing Avatar become the #1 film of all time. But next weekend I’ll probably go see When in Rome instead of seeing Avatar for a second time.
Avatar is amazing! It’s the box office road runner of 2009-2010. Bye, Bye Dark Knight!
I still say that I saw Titanic 7 times in theaters (and then bought it on VHS the day it came out, and then bought it on DVD later). PRetty much everyone else I knew saw it around five times as well. Everyone I know who’s seen Avatar (including myself) only saw it once. Weren’t ticket prices like half of what they are now, in ’97?
that’s nice. I know a dozen people who have seen it five times or more. There must be a ton of people seeing it more than once for it to be keeping up like this…
Nudes?
Titanic in today’s money made 943 million. IMHO all these figures should be adjusted for inflation. This would make Gone with the Wind the number one domestic grosser with 1.485 billion and Avatar at number 26.
Because your own personal experience (i.e. being friends with people who apparently share your taste in movies) MUST be the same for everyone else and can OB-viously be extrapolated to represent EVERYONE’S movie-going patterns.
*cough*
Can you email me some nude photos of yourself?
Just proves that poop rises to the top.
so true…even with all the dense poop out there. full of artifically flavored, extensively processed garbage. yet, even transformers 2 made a crapload of money. i hate the movie going public sometimes
It will never beat Gone with the Wind though.
Gone With the Wind is obviously higher than Titanic because look at what people go do instead of watch a movie in theature. DVD, VHS, on the internet? Nope! Titanic is the highest grossing movie of the past 2 decades or so, and Avatar will be the highest grossing 3-D movie. They are all #1 in their own right. Obviously we won’t ever see a movie that makes 1.43 billion in just N.A.
Gone With The Wind was a monster even in its day. I hate that inflation isn’t taken into account when making these lists. The fact that a movie from the 1930s sold more tickets than any movie today is remarkable.
If you take inflation into account, you should ALSO take into account re-releases (which boosted Gone With the Wind and Star Wars’ overall grosses), Internet piracy, VHS, DVD and Blu-Ray, television, home theaters, etc. It’s so annoying when people act like inflation is the ONLY factor to consider. Yeah, films today can gross more in raw dollars because of inflation. But that doesn’t take into account that older films, even films like Titanic, also had fairly significant advantages that films today don’t. Heck, Gone With the Wind didn’t get the remastered VHS treatment until the late ’90s!
Inflation could be applied to my pay checks from the 1990s but it wont mean i’ll get additional money from my old job. Studios wont get more money because of inflation. It’s a technically that means nothing.
By the way, Old films ran forever in theaters. Moderm films are out in months or less.
What the heck did people back in the ’30s have to do besides go and watch Gone With the Wind a few hundred times? Back in the day, when most Americans had only ABC, NBC, and CBS to watch, M.A.S.H. garnered more viewers for its last episode than Seinfeld or Friends for their last show. When you have only a few options, you only do what you can do. Today, there’s internet, piracy, network TV, cable, Netflix, video games, ESPN, skydiving, rollerblading, porn and a million and one other things that people can do for fun and entertainment. Saying Gone With the Wind sold more because it was better than Avatar is asinine because back then you didn’t have much else to do. Not to mention it was dirt cheap. When I was a kid, going to the movies was fun and inexpensive. But the price of tickets has skyrocketed while the price of wages and so forth has not climbed in turn.
I never said Gone With the Wind is better than Avatar. I haven’t seen Avatar, so I can’t say. I only think that considering that our population is larger now and that pop culture is much more accessible and a part of our society, that it’s remarkable how well Gone With the Wind did. I understand that Avatar has made more money, but I also think all of these lists disregard the unbelievable success of other movies because, as someone said, they were dirt cheap compared to today’s prices. I just looked up the list of most tickets sold, and yes, Gone With the Wind tops that list. By your reasoning, there should be many movies from that era because apparently, everyone was at the movies. That is, in fact, not true. Even by today’s standards, Gone With the Wind was an incredible success, and I think that should be acknowledged. Avatar is doing well, but a lot of that does have to do with how much people must pay to see it.
“Studios wont get more money because of inflation. It’s a technically that means nothing.”
You your take on inflation is not very bright. The value of the dollar back then was much stronger, so even though they earned a smaller dollar amount, the studio could do much more with $50 million back then than they can with $200 million today. That is why inflation is considered. Adjusting for inflation allows up to compare movies on a level playing field and puts the focus on number of tickets sold. However, there are many other factors to consider that make it difficult to compare movies of different eras.
What’s important is how fast it will become highest grossing film of all time. PUT THAT IN YOUR GUINNESS BOOK. Watch the Australian Open and you can sit and spin on your inflation and ticket sales!