Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Movie Talkback - Avatar continues to soar!!


Well here's something that I can honestly say I was a bit surprised to read about. When Avatar was first announced I thought, "man that movie costs a lot of money. I wonder if they'll make at least their production costs back." Then when I heard that Twentieth Century Fox had found a way to distribute costs across the board in case the movie flopped I wondered aloud even more. Well looks like we were all fools, well everyone except James Cameron.

Avatar has officially made 1 billion worldwide in 17 days, surpassing Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight to become the 4th highest grossing film of all time. That's right, 1 billion with a 'b' in 17 days. Looks like it will soon pass Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King to become the #2 worldwide release of all time. The only man who's film James Cameron may not be able to surpass with Avatar is himself, as Titanic sits alone on it's thrown. People can bemoan that the gross is inflated due to the fact that the movie cost more money to see since it was in 3D. None of that detracts from how much ungodly money it made in such a short time. Is it deserving of such lofty aspirations? To that I say, is Titanic or Dead Man's Chest any worthier?

However the films destruction of the box office and the mind doesn't just stop there. James Cameron is now the only director to have two films that have earned 1 billion dollars. Also, Avatar has grossed an estimated 68.3 million in it's third week of release, destroying the previous record of 45 million set by Spiderman 3. Man, just seeing which movies make so much money makes me sad. The love doesn't stop there. The 68.3 million made is 30 million dollars more than any January opening release ever, and the film is in it's third week of release!

Lastly, this past year's highest grossing film was Transformers 2: Revenge of Michael Bay which took in 402 million in 114 days domestically. Avatar will pass that domestic mark in an estimated 20 days.

What do all these facts and numbers mean? Besides the fact that Avatar is truly setting out to do what Cameron always wanted (to revolutionize films), not a whole lot. However it's such an incredible feat in cinematic history that I felt it was worth mentioning. Now if only I could buy James Cameron stock on the NY Stock Exchange.

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