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SATURDAY PM/SUNDAY AM: Increasingly, the Avatar phenomenon of breaking box office record after box office record will have to carry an asterisk. 
Because the fact remains that higher 3D ticket prices (as much as $18 in some big U.S. cities) is causing James Cameron’s big budget technopic to cream the 2D competition. So I won’t join in the hoopla associated with Avatar kicking Batman’s butt Saturday. Yes, it did speed past The Dark Knight‘s $533.3 million as the 2nd highest grossing film of all time at the domestic box office after just 37 days in release. And right now, Avatar‘s cume through Sunday is $552.7 million — just shy of the No. 1 biggest grossing domestic film ever Titanic‘s $600.8M. However, when adjusted for ticket price inflation, Avatar is still only 26th on the all time biggest domestic list. Meanwhile, 20th Century Fox said Avatar is getting tantalizingly closer to Titanic‘s worldwide record as the top grossing film of all time: $1.841B to $1.842B set back in 1997. That includes the $1.288B from overseas. Seriously, given all these stats, box office is becoming just like a baseball scorecard. And here’s another: playing in 2,897 North American theaters, Avatar racked up its 6th straight weekend as North America’s No. 1 movie in theaters.
Sony Pictures’s Screen Gems opened its modestly budgeted (pegged at $26M) supernatural action thriller Legion to 2,476 venues this weekend. Directed by Scott Stewart and starring Paul Bettany, the film had widespread word of mouth and a visually arresting ad campaign. That helped it do almost exactly what Sony hoped it would for the weekend – $18.2M, good enough for 2nd place. And, although Hollywood predicted Fox’s The Tooth Fairy would debut much bigger, the concensus is that its weekend of only $14.5M from 3,344 dates came down to Dwayne Johnson’s inability on this PG kiddie pic to appeal to adults like he usually does. And that one-sheet? Yuck!
But the real story of the weekend has to be the total collapse of CBS Films’ first output, Extraordinary Measures. This is despite an aggressive and expensive TV ad campaign for a pic no one in their right mind could think would make a dime. Only occasionally do I see Hollywood moguls this gleeful about the failure of one of their own. But almost every major studio pointed out to me that, on the even of the pic’s release, it had zero positives on Rotten Tomatoes. (It wound up with only 26%) ”CBS enters the business with a bust,” one rival studio exec emailed me. “And the few people CBS got to show up were very old: 85% over age 35, including 62% over age 50.” None of his peers and even pals thought CBS Inc chief Les Moonves should have ever started a vanity film division in the first place. There was resentment, jealousy, and in the end gloating galore after Friday’s disastrous numbers came in. Even more so now for Extraordinary Measure‘s dismal $7M weekend in 2,549 runs. This is way worse for Moonves than the pic’s stars Harrison Ford and Brendan Fraser because Les, a former actor, spent the weeks leading up to the melodrama’s release arrogantly boasting how personally involved he’d been tweaking the film — like reordering the sequence of certain scenes and cutting others. Even the pic’s marketing was treacly. Given his public humiliation, let’s see if Moonves still intends to make 4 to 6 star-driven films a year costing up to $50 million apiece.
Top 10 For Friday and Saturday and weekend:
1. Avatar (Fox) Week 6 [3,141 Theaters]
Friday $9.1M, Saturday $16.4M, Wkd $36M (-16%), Cume $552.7M
2. Legion (Sony) NEW [2,476 Theaters]
Friday $6.7M, Saturday $7.1M, Wkd $18.2M
3. Book of Eli (Warner Bros) Week 2 [3,111 Theaters]
Friday $5.0M (-57), Saturday $7.5M, Wkd $17M (-48%), Cume $62M.
4. The Tooth Fairy (Fox) NEW [3,344 Theaters]
Friday $3.8M, Saturday $6.6M, Wkd $14.5M
5. Lovely Bones (Paramount) Week 7 [2,571 Theaters]
Friday $2.8M, Saturday $3.9M, Wkd $8.8M, Cume $31.6M
6. Sherlock Holmes (Warner Bros) Week 5 [2,670 Theaters]
Friday $1.9M, Saturday $3.3M, Wkd $7.1M, Est Cume $191.5M
7. Extraordinary Measures (CBS Films) NEW [2,549 Theaters]
Friday $2.1M, Saturday $2.8M, Wkd $7M
8. Alvin & The Chipmunks: The Squeakquel (Fox) Week 5 [2,973 Theaters]
Friday $1.4M, Est Wkd $6.5M, Est Cume $204.2M
9. It’s Complicated (Universal) Week 5 [2,301 Theaters]
Friday $1.7M, Saturday $2.7M, Wkd $6.1M, Cume $98.6M
10. The Blind Side (Warner Bros) Week 10 [1,932 Theaters]
Friday $1.2M, Saturday $1.9M, Wkd $4.5M, Cume $234M
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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aaaahhhhhh…I love you! YOU ARE THE BEST!!!! trust me!
I feel like such a fool for going to see “Legion.” It’s the 2nd time in my life that I asked for my money back after a movie, the first time was “The Happening”. I would have left much sooner but my friend was stoned and wanted to ride it out, even she was disappointed afterwords.
James Cameron is ctually going to beat his own record. Hats off to him, he deserves it.
I wonderwhat Perez Hilton will say about this. Wait, I got it;
“Now that James Cameron’s Avatar has officially flopped, will the talentless director finally go away?”
Sounds about right for Perez.
Dark knight is going down this weekend
N most probably avatar would sink titanic’s worldwide gross this weekend . Go avatar Go..
Nice. Looks like Avatar’s getting a Golden Globes bump. Let’s keep in mind Titanic didn’t make half its domestic take until 44 days out, the last day in January. Avatar’s still 8 days away from that point. And Avatar has outgrossed Titanic every single day so far. My feeling is once this kind of momentum is in play, it’s very hard to make it stop. The factors that are keeping the movie going, word-of-mouth, repeat viewing, first reviews and now awards, are not going to suddenly disappear. And then popularity itself has a way of compounding upon itself. Once a movie becomes this popular, it brings on another level of fence-sitter into its audience, people who would normally never see a movie like this but just have to see what the fuss is about. Avatar looks to have very smooth sailing until Alice in Wonderland opens in March, and that’s exactly the same weekend the Oscars air. So if it wins Best Picture, that could give it enough of a bump to fend off some of Alice’s wrath.
I’m not sure where you are coming from about Alice In Woonderland, but the reason AIW will deal a blow to Avatar is because contractually it will bump Avatar out of the IMAX and Real 3D theatres. Yet another reason for theatre chains to up grade all their theatres to IMAX and real 3D. I’m sure there will be more movies in the future that will be bumping other good flicks out before they fade from popularity.
Todd: good point about the contractual IMAX obligations. That’s really the crux of the problem.
Are theatres obligated to replace Avatar with AIW? I would think it would be a difficult decision to replace a cash cow, Avatar, with much riskier children’s fare aimed at adults, AIW.
Titanic was in the top ten for over 6 months. It actually went up one week after another in revenue, something Avatar hasn’t done. Adjusted for inflation, Titanic is at almost a billion dollars. Tickets were also about half of what they are now, not counting the 3D surcharge. So yeah, Avatar is doing good and definitely is an event…but it is no Titanic. This is the exact reason I wish they would count ticket sales and not gross because it paints a fake and ugly picture. The mania surrounding Titanic will never happen again, no matter what movie outgrosses it.
1) You’re exaggerating about Titanic’s weekly sales rising “one week after another.” Here’s the 3-day weekend sales for the first 10 weeks for Titanic (left column) and Avatar (right column):
$29M – $77M
35 – 76
33 – 68
29 – 50
30 – 43
25 – 35 (estimated)
26 – *
23 – *
28 – *
21 – *
2) As a businessman and business owner, I assure you that revenue is far more important than # of items sold. Cash flow is the name of the game, not ticket flow. Ticket prices only matter as a tool used to help maximize revenue. If ‘ticket flow’ were the name of the game, companies could just sell tickets for a penny and boast about how they sold 100 times more tickets than were sold for Gone With the Wind.
3) The only adjusting that should be done is adjusting for US inflation (not ticket inflation) so that we’re comparing the real value of the revenue earned during different years. Adjusting for ‘ticket inflation’ or for higher 3-D charges results in worthless numbers that don’t reflect the film’s economic performance relative to the economic performance of past films (which is what’s really relevant here).
4) With regard to your comment that “Avatar is doing good and definitely is an event…but it is no Titanic,” I invite you to reconsider. Avatar will soon pass the absolute revenue figures of Titanic, and I forecast that it will charge past the ‘adjusted for US inflation’ figures without too much trouble. Heck, I think it has a very good shot of beating Titanic’s irrelevant ‘adjusted for ticket inflation’ figures, too. And let’s not forget the revolutionary nature of the film.
Avatar will prove to be a bigger event and a FAR more important film than Titanic.
Big deal. At some point another movie will blow this one away.
“Avatar will prove to be a bigger event and a FAR more important film than Titanic.” It’s a MOVIE. It’s not that important. People are so hung up on tivialities.
Bubstubbler got it right on the dot! Thanks for the post above which I hope puts away further talk about adujusting for inflation. Nikki- you have to at least be amazed that this film is performing so well in midst of a global recession, piracy at an all time high, various home entertainment options, online entertainment, quantity of tentpole film per year, etc. If you’re going to place an asterisk by this film then you have to place an asterisk on all films in the past as they didn’t have as much competition.
Avatar is a game changer and not just a movie. It is an event like a solar eclipse which in the movie industry does not happen very often…last time I believe was Titanic so Brian, I repsectfully disagree- this is after all a business website and to post things that are financially relevant and has industry significance. Would Avatar have gotten this much global attention and sparked so much debate if it were just a movie? It has become a cultural and business phenomenon.
Yes, another film will inevitably come along to beat it I don’t doubt but what Brian and Nikki take for granted is the fact that we will live long enough to see the next box office eclipse.
if you are frustrated because “it’s a movie. It’s not that important” I can imagine DHD would be a bit frustrating for you. this site is, after all, all about the movie business.
On any other board, I might agree with you … but do you know where you are? Most of the people here have worked their entire lives on your “trivialities.” Here it matters like it doesn’t other places.
@Brian:”It’s a MOVIE. It’s not that important. People are so hung up on tivialities.”
Any cultural phenom is the opposite of trivial, and this one teaches moral values of respect for others, might does not make right, community based upon mutual high-regard makes people the happiest, Life is valuable no matter how lowly, our Spiritual dimension has been quashed by Materialism.
In addition to these positive messages, there is difficult controversy for viewers to mull over: when is it appropriate to change sides against perceived evil, especially when this leads to fighting one’s erstwhile fellows?
When I read Critics finding flaws, it reminds me of the mid-60s’ criticism of The Beatles, that their haircut was effeminate, that they couldn’t read music so they weren’t real musicians, that they would just blow-over when faced with the next musical wave.
“Any cultural phenom is the opposite of trivial, and this one teaches moral values of respect for others, might does not make right, community based upon mutual high-regard makes people the happiest, Life is valuable no matter how lowly, our Spiritual dimension has been quashed by Materialism.”
And anyone who thinks this will somehow change how people actually live their lives is completely disconnected from reality.
Avatar is a virtual amusement park ride and a cinematic hula hoop. This time next year we’ll all be talking about something else. That’s reality.
you are so right. spot on. thank you for laying it down!
I bet IMAX will bring Avatar back for another run later in the year if they have a scheduling hole. If Fox is smart they’ll start to advertise the looming end of its IMAX availability as AIW draws near: “Only three weeks left to experience the awe-inspiring worldwide phenomenon the way it was meant to be seen – in astonishing IMAX 3D!”
Tooth Fairy will do well as long as there are kids in the world and those kids have already seen more chipmunks than they can stand. I’ll be taking my two kids to TF tomorow. I wish more films were out that I can take my kids to and not have to hold my breath that something is going to offend.
Have to agree with you. Offend or scare. Seems like Disney is out to frighten the hell out of toddlers for some reason. We’ll see TF tomorrow.
As long as you’re wishing, why don’t you wish for those movies to also be good? Or at least decent? You shouldn’t have to suffer through The Tooth Fairy just because it – possibly – won’t offend.
It’s funny how the only people who think there’s not enough family films are parents, but yet to the rest of us it looks like *most* movies are for kids and we struggle to find something intelligent.
And fyi if your widdle kiddie hears a bad word or sees a boob, then (gasp) they won’t die.
People- Tooth Fairy? Really? Quit trying to put a silver lining on this piece of shit. Anything short of a $20M opening for this movie is a disappointment for Fox. Even Witch Mountain- that abomination- opened to $24M. And Game Plan opened over $20M also. With a negative cost of at least $45-$50M (and I’m being generous), this is a flop for Fox. The studio bigwigs probably could not care less, given the Avatar grosses, but it’s another disappointment for Big Fox’s recent development (again, not counting Avatar, which has been in development for years).
WOW, The Blind Side still in the top10 ??? Impressive.
I think those Legion projections are too optimistic: If it made $6.8 million yesterday, don’t expect more than a $15 million weekend once word gets out that it’s so goddamn bad. Not that you need a quote to know that; wasn’t the trailer bad enough? Big drop ahead next weekend, probably above 65%, fitting for the people who make this trash.
Speaking of a heavy decline, good to see Book of Eli dropping hard as well, going down 57% Friday-to-Friday. Maybe the wonderful economy going on outside is getting people to think twice about where their moviegoing dollar goes. That might explain why the WOM-hot Avatar is holding on so well.
todd….you are correct. I am still amazed at how many theaters still only have one digital screen or none at all…even in sizeable cities.
Over the holiday’s, I went to see Avatar a second time at a Regal, and they had 1 digital and therefore only 1 3D theater for Avatar and it was one of their middle sized (which for regal means small theaters). I refused to see it in that small theater.
Unfortunately, it appears Avatar will still be going strong when AIW opens up and kicks it out of IMAX and 3D theaters.
Now there are theaters out there that have more than one digital and 3D theater, so they will keep showing it….but it will lose about 80% of its show times that weekend.
Hopefully with all the success of the 3D movies, this will finally kick theaters into upgrading. I know I saw last year that all AMC theaters will be upgrading all screens to new 4K Sony digital projects through 2012 and Regal announced many of their theaters are doing to the same.
I don’t work in the film industry, I’m just a fan, though a relatively educated one at that. Can someone please explain to me (without snark) why Extraordinary Measures was made into a movie? It’s like the opposite of The Blindside in some ways. Not uplifting, and if it were going to be made a la Lorenzo’s Oil, it seems like it should have been made independently for a couple million dollars, and not realized on 2500 screens. This isn’t Patriot Games era Harrison Ford, and Brendan Fraser is not a movie star. Go into any bar in the midwest on a Wednesday night, and you can find 5 guys with more talent, screen presence and looks than Fraser. I don’t get it. Hey — let’s go spend 50 dollars watching a kid die while we’re unemployed and Haiti crumbles to the ground. Great idea!
Well when this movie was made before Haiti and the economy fell so no one could have predicted that. Hey, why is half the shit made today? Date Movie? Gigli? Glitter? Some moguls thought hey, if we spend $50M on movie and marketing, the movie should at least make $30M and WW $15M and $20M on DVD and $20M on VOD/TV Deals and there you made $35M. There is always risk but some things seem safe bets and with Harrison Ford they thought it was achievable and in matter of fact it still might be.
Most new film divisions start with trial films like SUMMIT with P2 a few years back and Oveture with something I can’t remember. This is to work out distribution and marketing kinks, get a feel for the game. This is what I feel like this film was supposed to be like, but once Ford signed on, the budget-ballooned and it didn’t become such a trial film anymore.
It would seem that the one thing CBS Films would try to avoid is to have their maiden voyage in movies appear to be television. Instead, the look of this film and the subject matter are 100% little box. What’s next? A remake of “The Boy In the Bubble”? And then after they screened this box office poison, they decided to splash a ton on the campaign, even forcing “human interest” stories about the pic on their news affiliates. If I were Moonves I’d shitcan every exec at CBS Films who didn’t at least try to shout down this release, then turn around and fire myself. A chimp with a blindfold could have chosen a more promising performer.
Lokanter,
I promise to try not to sound snarky, but to be honest it will end up sounding snarky. Sadly this is all based on years of observation: A good number of bad live-action films get made because of the lofty stratification of Hollywood. Let me explain. We like to kid ourselves that Hollywood is this great big meritocracy, but the truth is that Hollywood is more akin to a very exclusive war of attrition:
You start out graduating from some Ivy League school, film school, or equally “exclusive” school. You come from the top of your class and get a job working as an assistant on the desk of some “out-of-touch” executive or agent at an equally “exclusive” production company, studio, or agency. The reason I say “out-of-touch” is because when you live in a gated community like the Malibu Colony, your car is paid for by your company, your meals are paid for by your company, your assistant pretty much does anything that you view as tedious for you, and the only people with whom you socialize have equally expensive perks, you tend not to know what a person who works an hourly job in Middle-America wants, needs, or is moved by emotionally. You take this job working as an assistant for this executive, producer, or agent, because you ultimately want their job, but you vow never to become as out-of-touch as your boss. You live low to the ground, and you know better what would entertain that hourly worker in Middle-America than your boss. Eventually, your boss gets promoted, overdoses on cocaine, washes out of the business in a sea of his own excess, commits suicide, or some combination of the above.
Your lucky break!
You move up into a low-level executive job maybe a little scarred from the experience of picking up dry-cleaning and illicit drugs for your old boss, but now you can influence the actual development of movies that people like you would want to see. Of course, you get a raise with this new job, and you use it to lease a German touring car and some smart-looking clothing from Barney’s. You read more scripts and take writers to lunch on the company dime. You find projects that move you: projects about young urban professionals who lease their duplex to a serial killer tenant, or sexy college students who rent a cabin that is attacked by a psychopath with a hook, or urban professionals who hire a serial killer au pair, etc. Stuff that everybody can relate to. While two of your movies fail, the one that you were least involved with becomes a huge hit. In spite of the fact that the person who was actually responsible for the hit left the company, overdosed on cocaine, washed out of the business in a sea of his own excess, committed suicide, or some combination of the above; you get a promotion!
Now your company leases you an even bigger German touring car, picks up the next three years of your contract, pays off your student loans, helps you buy a house, etc. Stuff that all average American’s get from their employers. You find yourself going to more dinners and events: premieres, fund-raisers, brit milahs, etc. You now have the ability to buy scripts without consulting with your boss – but – you will be held responsible for the success or failure of those projects, and the leather in your leased car is so supple. So, you buy only projects that other people want (see: Keynesian beauty contest). This way, if you buy a bad project, you can defend your decision behind the idea that every other studio was bidding on it. You only pursue directors and writers who are “hot”. That way if they blow it; you can say “but their last film made $100M!” You only pursue actors who are already super-famous or just starred in a huge blow-out success: i.e. Denzel Washington or Sam Worthington on December 19th (not Sam Worthington on December 17th). You begin to only make decisions if your hand is forced. Eventually, you avoid enough blame and take credit for enough success, that you are mentioned a potential successor to the head of your studio or some other studio. You call every favor – every A-List director, writer, actor makes a phone call on your behalf. You leak it to your favorite journalists that you are being considered for the position. The studio’s first choice says no, and you’re in!
You’ve made it to the top of the heap. You can green light movies!
You decide that your first project must have the most universal and broadly relatable appeal. You know of a script about an average, ordinary lawyer and Harvard Business School graduate, who learns that his two children are suffering from a rare disease so he becomes CEO of a pharmaceutical company and raises $100 Million to develop a cure for his children’s disease. Everyone can relate to a father’s love driving him to become CEO of a company and raise $100 Million. He’s just like you. I’m sure that any unemployed Caterpillar line worker in Peoria, IL would do the same if their kid got sick – so of course they will go out an buy a ticket at the local Kerasotes theater to hear a story about the same…right?
You approach your new boss with the project – and he is excited because he too can relate to an average CEO just trying to help his kids.
You get Harrison Ford to agree to be in the movie because he too can see the universal and broadly relatable story in it. Wouldn’t anybody quit their job, jump in their jet, and fly across the country to become CEO of another company to save their kid?
You need a director and a co-star, but unfortunately, you have blown most of your above-the-line budget on Harrison Ford: so you open Variety to see what did well this weekend: Ironman – too bad – Jon Favreau has already committed to do a sequel; what’s next? What Happens in Vegas: Perfect! That Vaughan guy is cheap! And his last movie did bank! Who cares that it was a comedy; he did a bunch of made-for-TV stuff in the UK and this script has a certain movie of the week quality to it. You have a director; and luckily Brendan Fraiser asks you paper or plastic at the Whole Foods in Brentwood that same weekend – you’ve got a co-star.
You speed through production because your window on Harrison Ford’s time is woefully tight. You watch the dailies in the smaller screening room in your house because your feng shui consultant has yet to send over that elephant sculpture to align the spiritual energies of the larger screening room. You admire Brendan Fraiser’s performance, but you call your assistant to arrange to send your personal trainer to the set to help Brendan with his neck, and oh-yes to remind you of your social security number because you’ve forgotten it again. Marketing tells you that the name “Crowley” doesn’t inspire a reaction with your audience; so you rename it “Extraordinary Measures” because “Extreme Measures” was already taken and it sounds like Harrison Ford might shoot a gun or blow something up in the film. The movie doesn’t test well – so you re-cut it. And re-cut it. You wish you could re-shoot it, but Harrison Ford is doing something else now.
The movie opens and nobody sees it except the cast and crew, and maybe not even them.
The guy at the gate of your neighborhood tells you that he tried to go see it, but it wasn’t playing anymore at the theater he went to. He swears he’ll rent the DVD.
Congratulations! You have officially become as “out-of-touch” as your first boss.
Lokanter, sadly, that is how movies like Extraordinary Measures get made.
Awesome thread and this was the most awesome comment.
Great post!
That’s not snarky.
Sounds like a good movie idea…
‘Legion’s fairly bad. Watched it last night and was unimpressed. It’s a re-hash of ‘Terminator’ and a weak one. And, worse of all, it’s one of those flicks where pretty much everything was given away on the trailer. I would say to folks to watch something else if they’re considering ‘Legion’ this weekend.
So. We’re done discussing how great LOVELY BONES is doing, right? And how Paramount turned things around by figuring out that the audience was young women, right? Just checking.
As evidenced by the recent election results in Massachusetts Americans are getting sick and tired of the leftist bent that all of our entertainment is giving us. Avatar has not yet been profitable. There was an article linked to on both Drudge and Free Republic stating how Fox is only going to see 15% of the ticket sales. That means as of right now Fox is not in the black as this movie has earned them only $225M. In some cases a movie would be able to bring in a large amount of revenue for the studio via DVD sales. That’s not going to happen with this movie. Sure Transformers 2 made a lot of money through DVD sales but the comedy and drama of that film translate well to the small screen while the leftist bent of Avatar will simply just anger people and thus no one will buy it on DVD.
If Cameron were such a succesful director than why was he never approached to make a sequel to any of his movies? They have made Terminator 3 & 4, Aliens vs Predator 1 & 2 in the last few years. I don’t recall ever hearing Cameron was offered the director’s chair. The reason is his films are not profitable. Does anyone ever wonder why there was never a sequel to Titanic? Because the movie was not profitable.
According to that Saudi Prince, who supposedly heard it from Murdoch’s mouth, Avatar was going to add $400 mil to Fox’s bottom line.
This is a joke right. I mean, you’re just trying to push people’s buttons. You can’t really believe any of these assertions.
Cameron is arguably the most commercially successful director… EVER.
Any studio would open their checkbooks for him to do anything.
to say a movie that’s about to gross $2billion dollars won’t earn a profit means you either have no clue how this business works. Or you’re just trying to stir people up.
I’ve always wondered why there was no sequel to the Titanic.
“Does anyone ever wonder why there was never a sequel to Titanic? Because the movie was not profitable.”
This is the most genuinely funny thing I’ve read all day. Thanks.
I believe there is a sequel in development. It is to be directed by Michael Bay.
Titanic 2:The Lusitania.
Rose is returning to England in steerage class because she is now poor when she falls in love with someone in 1st class
I have to second that.
You’re not doing the conservative cause any favors by continuing with your irrational and ill-informed rantings on Avatar.
Cameron did Terminator 1 & 2. Fox gave him a record budget for Avatar. Cameron will be doing Avatar 2 & 3. Fox just keeps bankrolling his budget-busting films though, according to you, they’re not making any money! Rupert Murdoch must be a left-wing loony, eh?
As for the Titanic, it’s a little difficult to do a sequel to a movie in which the main character dies and the centerpiece ends up at the bottom of the ocean.
If Cameron hasn’t made more sequels it’s largely because he has other priorities. He wanted to make Abyss, for example, after Terminator 2.
As for Fox only seeing 15% of ticket sales, that’s just nonsense. In the U.S., studios typically get 70-80% of the initial box office and that tapers off to about 35% by the 5th or 6th week. Overseas, the numbers are pretty similar except for China, which keeps 90% of the receipts for itself. Fortunately, China is only about 10% of the overseas market because despite its huge population it has relatively few movie theaters.
Trust me. Avatar will be breaking records for combined Blu-Ray and DVD revenue. The so-called “leftist bent” will not make a noticeable dent in DVD sales as it has not made a noticeable dent at the box office. The pirated version of the movie has already broken the record for the most downloads in a one-week period.
Cameron had a $75 million pay day from the Titanic. When the movie ran over budget Cameron reassured studio execs by volunteering to forgo his cut of the box office. However, when Titanic proceeded to break box office records, Fox decided to give him $75 million anyway! Why would they do that if Titanic lost money? Are you saying Rupert Murdoch is an idiot?
The idea that Cameron was “never approached” to make a sequel to any of his films is factually wrong. Jim has been in demand since Aliens and has said no to countless projects, especially since Titanic. He was offered Planet of the Apes by Fox and said no. He was approached on T3 said no to that as well. Given his relationship with Fox, if Jim wasn’t offered Alien 3, 4 or 5 it’s only because they knew he’d say no. And a Titanic sequel… you do realize the boat sinks?
There may be many reasons why it took Jim so long to make a movie after Titanic, a lack of offers was not one of them.
The boat sinks? What? I just rented Titanic for the first time and was about to watch it tonight! And now you spoiled it for me!
Hahaha, just kidding.
Maybe Whiskey doesn’t realize that the Titanic sinks and that’s why he’s wondering why there is no sequel. Not only doesn’t he know movie trends and facts, he doesn’t even know historical facts! Poor guy is clueless! LOL
This is a bit, right?
Certainly hope so; very funny.
I don’t think anyone ever does wonder why there isn’t a sequel to TITANIC. It’s actually pretty obvious. But apparently not to everyone.
You are a stupid, ideologically obsessed fool. And your random clusterfuck of throwing things together (Massachusetts election, Avatar, no profits, etc) is bananas. You are just a loony tunes right-winger who doesn’t know a thing, (zip) about the entertainment industry.
I’ve said it before on your dumbass rants and showed actual figures (as I’ve said before I helped make this film so I know from what I speak) and not ‘articles linked to on Drudge’. 15% is so dumb, it’s not even utterable. Fox made plenty, already made a lot on the film IN PROFIT. The costs and revenue were split between Two special entities (Dune and Ingenious) and everyone has done well, seen profits beyond their wildest dreams and will continue. When the film goes out on DVD it will destroy as people want to look at that world again. Not from me, but from merchandise fulfillment people at RIVAL studios. So you have no idea what you’re talking about.
I also take issue with the idea that Avatar is necessarily leftist. You have NO IDEA what the corporation in the future represents and don’t note that the hero is a military man. There is nothing left or right about not destroying indigenous cultures unless you think there is some conservative viewpoint that values that type of genocide.
As for your assertions on Cameron, I will just say the truth to your dumbfuck face again: He is the most respected Director in the business. His films have NEVER NEVER failed to return huge profits, except Abyss which was still profitable in the theaters, just not wildly so. Any studio would KILL to have him make their films. He just isn’t for hire. He only makes his own films that he writes.
Never made sequels? Aliens WAS a sequel you moron. T2 was a little film released in the early nineties. You may have heard of that. it was a sequel to his own hit film, The Terminator. If the leftist bent of Avatar is ‘angering’ people, why are they flocking to see it in the theater? They will see past whatever offense you take and simply enjoy the film. in the theater, at home, on DVD/BRD and on demand. Man are you stupid.
Hey… It’s Whiskey with an e. The demented bitter psycho is back!
Look, I’m no fan of Cameron. He’s a screamer. Some of his dialogue is toe-curling. His Globes speech had all the charm of a spite shit. And now with his white hair, he looks like some mad Dickensian undertaker.
But I still give it up for his big vision courage and tech-noir expertise. And his box office success. The guy is profitable, whatever you keep saying.
So I’m just wondering with all your Cameron-hating, if you are maybe an obese toothless meth-addled film student-loser living in a basement with nothing but Star Trek dolls and a chronic porn addiction and fridge full of Hatorade to explain your animosity.
Seriously. Why the grudge?
You’re not Whiskey.
I am.
AVATAR is on-track for a $35 million weekend. But most of that is 3-D IMAX. That doesn’t bode well to translate into home video sales.
Will people pony up for a Blu-Ray AVATAR on home video, or a rental, when you still don’t get the Three D effect? Probably not.
You do touch on a big problem for Cameron boosters, which is how the HECK he went 12 YEARS from 1997′s TITANIC to 2009′s AVATAR.
Can someone explain to me how a director goes TWELVE YEARS without making another movie? Why if TITANIC was such a profitable movie, Sony and Fox and Universal and Warners didn’t just throw money at him to get another type of picture? A historical setting for a simple star-crossed love story?
AVATAR’s politics will look bad the second a successful terrorist attack kills lots of Americans and bad-mouthing Marines is not in fashion. But that’s not the movie’s problem.
Its BLOATED BUDGET IS. AVATAR at a cost of “only” ~$250-300 million including marketing would be a smash hit. That’s the same problem that plagued TITANIC and why Cameron spent twelve years doing Dark Angel and not much else. Hollywood does not care if you are a freak, weirdo, lunatic, drug addict, tax cheat, on the lam for raping a 13 year old, or anything else like that. Studios DO CARE about bloated budgets killing profitability.
Bottom line: would anyone rent/buy this on home video, after seeing it in Three D?
[AVATAR's big contribution is a real, "adult" 3-D movie not Spy Kids 3-D or what have you, done in a serious manner. It's a piracy-beater, but the caveat is that it costs A LOT. How many films are being rushed out to 3-D again?]
Um, every single big budget tentpole is trying to do it in 3d. Spiderman. The scent of extra money for 3d will push it. And he went 12 years because after Titanic he had little to prove at the pace things were moving. He wanted to rest, shoot doc’s about his other great passion– undersea diving in submersibles and scuba. He did that. Then he set about making the technology to make Avatar which was so insanely dense and difficult. He only thought it possible after seeing Gollum in LOTR. Then he knew he could do his version which would be an improvement but that he also wanted to shoot a new form of 3-D so he built that technology with Vince Pace. You have to understand how hard that was. But you just think your online pontificating passes for analysis and effort. You couldn’t do a hundredth of what he’s don in an average week.
Taking the points in turn: TV manufacturers are looking into a way to get a non-stereoscopic 3D experience on the small screen. Whether it’s going to work with something akin to Real-D’s circular polarized filters or something else remains to be seen. Initial sets should hit sometime this year, and I’d expect Avatar to be a strong element to spur on sales.
Cameron went 12 years between features because he didn’t want to make one between Titanic and Avatar. As has been stated in many, many places, he was waiting for the technology to exist that would allow him to make the film.
Note that he wasn’t just laying idle. Besides actually working to develop that technology, he’s done a few documentaries and worked as a producer on a few other projects. And, really, the man is more than set up for life. He’s at a place where he can pick and choose what he does with his time and considerable amounts of money. At his level, it doesn’t matter how much money you throw at him: he doesn’t need it so he’s going to do what he wants.
And, really, any argument about Avatar losing money is ridiculous. The studio cares so much about how a 2 billion dollar worldwide gross is losing money that I bet they’ve told Cameron that a sequel can’t happen.
Just like how Disney lost money on At World’s End ($300m budget, higher than Avatar, yet a WW gross of under $1bn) and they emphatically aren’t working on a fourth film in the Pirates series that’ll hit theaters in 2011.
Oh, wait. They ARE doing that.
Cameron didn’t make a copycat Titatnic film because Cameron didn’t want to, and if you believe anything else you just don’t understand him or this business. He can do ANYTHING he wants to do. Maybe he was spending his $75M, hanging with his family and friends, guesting on Entourage, and dreaming up and making the most successful film in box office history. Just a guess.
Cameron is not a whore, and it is terribly revealing of your republican self to assume everyone is.
Clearly no one has offered Whiskey money to fuck a mule, because if they had we’d have seen him fucking one.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Thank you for that eloquent articulation of what so many think about Whiskey.
Whiskey, since you obviously know nothing about the film or television business, do you think people who do believe your tiresome rants? Are you that sadly deluded? Or, by your evident emptiness, you simply have nothing else to do.
Um. What?
You do realize that Cameron directed “Terminator 2″, right?
Wait a minute, why am I even responding to you? The election in Massachusetts? Drudge? Free Republic?
LOLLLL
A sequel to Titanic? Ummm, you do know there was only one of them that sank, right? And T3… Cameron said no dice due to Kassar & Vajnia’s involvement and their federal indictments.
Learn the industry my ignorant friend.
Is the “why no sequel to Titanic” line the dumbest thing ever posted to this site? Nikki, chime in please.
A sequel to Titanic!?! The boat sank, idiot! What sequel are they going to make!! Whisky is a colosal moron, just like those pinheads in Massachusetts who voted that Republican twit into the Senate. A Titanic sequel!?! I’ve never heard of anything so assinine.
Yeah, right, Cameron is not a successful director. He probably didn’t want to do any sequels. The guy can do whatever he wants.
This whole “Whiskey” character is just somebody’s idea of a joke, right? Somebody’s parody of right wing jackasses like Rush and Hannity. It has to be. No one could be that stupid.
AVATAR – Our family contributed to the gross:
My son & his wife & daughter saw the 2D version on day one.
My wife, our grandaughter (2D) saw the 3D version on day three.
My son & his wife (2D) saw the 3D version on day six.
My other son & his wife saw the 3D version on day twelve.
And, something tells me, we’re not done yet…
So is CBS Features game plan to release Made-For-TV films in theaters? You’d think they would have tried a little harder to distance themselves from the standard mediocre fare that they save for Hallmark Movies of the Week.
I understand that Extraordinary Measures was a misfire, but why should anyone in the industry be “gleeful.” The fact that they want to make more movies and put more people to work should be applauded especially in this economy.
This is why people hate Hollywood. A bunch of cynical jerks who couldn’t care less about providing jobs, entertainment or anything else of value that doesn’t stroke their own selfish, self centered egos. Hollywood was a lot better place when it was run by former rug merchants back in the 20′s and 30′s.
The fact that LEGION will make 18mil this weekend proves the general audience in this country doesn’t deserve great filmmaking. Weekend after weekend they pour out of their homes and support garbage like this. Then complain Hollywood doesn’t make enough smart movies. Well stop attending this kind of genre trash and it will go away. Really, who needs to see this movie on opening night? Shame on all of you who bought a ticket.
LEGION’s TICKET SALES is not that impressive considering that there are about 306 million people in America, and most of them don’t go out to the movies. It’s really ticket price inflation, and believe me things are going to change rapidly.
First, the FT (note to those impersonating me, it’s useful to have actual cites to stuff I quote, like the Financial Times, to be more believable) had a story about YouTube offering video rentals. Yeah, that’s “me-too” along with Amazon, Itunes, Netflix, Blockbuster, and a few others. But Google/Youtube have a lot of money to make things work right. Right now five movies from Sundance can be seen for $3.99.
I’m surprised Nikki did not have this on the site.
Think about that for a minute. It’s possible Sundance (or Cannes, or Venice, or other film festivals) could expand to say, YouTube or Itunes or Netflix or Amazon, and have a “virtual festival” where anyone can log in and see a movie online, for low cost. Its great for the Festival (ads/sponsors/donations on the page to buy/view movies), great for film-makers, and part of a shift to seeing movies not in theaters but on laptops, computers, and connected to internet-enabled TVs.
Which would make theaters the home of big-screen 3-D spectacles like AVATAR, which would not get much play in home video (which can’t show 3-D yet for a cheap price). It would split the market.
So conceivably, if you don’t like movies like LEGION (it might be bad or good, haven’t seen it), the cheap prices for online viewing will drive film-makers to mass sensibility. You won’t get Taxi Driver or Raging Bull, but you won’t get Battlefield Earth or Margot at the Wedding either. You’ll get, with more sex and violence, the same middle brow stuff you got from 1930-1962 or so. You won’t see it in a movie theater but on your laptop or widescreen, Hi-Def TV.
[Just went to Youtube's site. The films are: ONE TOO MANY MORNINGS, CHILDREN OF INVENTION, THE COVE, HOMEWRECKER, and BASS ACKWARDS. Available through Jan 31.]
Good to see Legion making some good money this weekend. Dennis Quaid is the greatest actor alive! Also good to see Avatar will drop to number 2 next weekend when it falls below 30 Million dollars and The Edge of Darkness takes the top spot.
Keep dreaming. Edge of Darkness looks horrible. If Avatar drops 25% next weekend, it will still make approx $27 million, and I doubt the Gibson flick tops that. If anything, that dumb Kristen Bell movie might give Avatar a run for its money.
If Edge of Darkness can’t beat Avatar this upcoming weekend then without a Doubt From Paris with Love will beat it. By that weekend Avatar will be down to about 20 Million dollars.
Avatar’s daily sales are almost double those of Titanic at the 35-day mark (a little under $4M vs a little over $2M). Titanic did $350M in additional domestic sales after the 35-day mark.
I think Avatar could successfully play in theaters until other such 3-D blockbusters arrive. Till then Avatar will be such a novelty that it’ll keep hanging on in the top 10 indefinitely.
Because of these factors, I no longer think Avatar will ‘only’ do $650-700 domestically and $2B globally; instead, I think Avatar has a legit shot of breaking $1B domestically and $3B globally, and it may even make a run at Gone With the Wind’s all-time adjusted domestic total.
Dude, can I have some of that weed you’re smoking? $1 billion domestically!!! It would have to double its current cume. Ain’t happening.
Remember, TITANIC DID that twelve years ago. So Inflation is a factor.
I think AVATAR will hang around in the top ten also, but that’s probably a factor of not much being released until say, May. A 35 million weekend is respectable, but perspective: it’s less than the opening weekend of say, “the Grudge.”
Wait. Are you comparing a film’s sixth weekend gross to another’s opening gross? You are dumber than I thought.
‘EXTRAORDINARY MEASURES’ is one of the worst movie titles out there. No appeal whatsover and the poster shots don’t help either. I can’t remember how many times I’ve heard: ” What happened to Brendan Fraser, he USED TO look so good “
I’ve seen Avatar three times. By far, the Real3D, 2.35 experience was the best. The IMAX was washed out, 1.85, bleh.
That piece of “high art”, Avatar, is making the Saudis even richer! And with a cool anti-American message packaged in a McDonald’s “Happy Meal”, it is icing on the cake for them. Who needs oil wealth when you have CGI?
Avatar’s numbers are so misleading. Domestically, when adjusted for inflation, it’s only #30. I also wish people would count the “3D tax” that is being paid by the moviegoers. This isn’t to make Avatar look bad, but it just puts the success of Avatar in the proper context. It’s still a runaway hit by any measure. I just want an appropriate scale to measure by.
You say it is “only” number 30 as if that is a bad thing. Look at that list and tell me how many films release in the 2000′s are in the top 30. I think there is one, TDK.
Wow, I didn’t really read your post carefully, sorry.
We need to adjust Titanics numbers to reflect a lack of competition for eyballs for video games, say 10% off. Subtract another 20% off of Titanic’s gross for people who can now choose to wait to see Avatar on DVD for as little as $1 dollar. Subtract more because the entertainment options for friday nights now include more partys. Friday night used to be primarily movie night. You can’t compare different decades by majically “adjusting for inflation”. That’s not reality. It’s a little like comparing CD sales of artists today verses a decade ago. It doesn’t mean much.
I don’t understand what you’re getting at. People played video games in 1997, people were watching movies on VHS when they came out, and parties weren’t invented in the 21st century (This last point is the strangest one of all. There are more parties today than in 1997? Where does that come from?). You could still compare audio sales from all media to the past forms of media.
Obviously, you will never be able to account for every little difference from decade to decade when it comes to box office. But just taking today’s number and comparing it to numbers from a decade ago without any adjustment for the economy pointless. Like others have pointed out, ticket sales is a better measure of popularity than box office grosses. My guess is that “Avatar” would drop even further than #30 (which, by the way, “Avatar” is now #26 when adjusted) when you figure ticket sales separate from box office.
“More parties on Friday”… it’s called ridicule. I think what mfan is “getting at” is that purely looking at the impact of inflation is not going to let you compare apples to apples, yet that’s the supposed objective of what you’re wanting to do. Gone With the Wind did not have to compete against television, home video, or internet. (Parties, however, still did do their usual damage.) Are you going to handicap GWTW to level your illusory playing field?
The marketing of “Extraordinary Measures” was awful. This move came out of nowhere, and its trailer doesn’t give any real idea of what the movie is about. I know it’s something about medicine, but it stops there. How can you have one of the biggest box office draws in history in your movie and not give it a proper marketing push? I still don’t think many people would have seen it, but maybe it wouldn’t have been a complete bomb.
As the audience breakdown implied, many Harrison Ford fans supported this movie. Casting a comedian in a movie about a dying child was one of the dumbest moves of all history, and wouldn’t be helped by more marketing. IMO.
Which actor is a comedian in this film? I don’t know who you’re talking about.
I don’t know the numbers, but my point was that I don’t think this film was on anybody’s radar. It came from nowhere. I had no idea what this movie was about, even from the poor trailers. There have been movies about dying kids that have done better box office, so I don’t think that’s the reason the film did poorly. I think it was all about letting people know there was even a movie coming out called “Extraordinary Measures”.
@Napoleon Solo – Thank you so much for recognizing the fact that PEREZ HILTON is a Fu*king MORON when it comes to blogging about Avatar, or anything else industry related that isn’t just GOSSIP.
“There’s $500 million dollars shot to hell! The most expensive movie ever made has FAILED at the box office.” – Perez Hilton
Hey Perez, you dumb-ass, I’ve noticed you now creep this site hijacking Nikki’s posts in attempt to make us believe you’re now a reliable source for industry news. Well guess what? You are not a reliable source for industry news, and you never will be because, well because the quote above says it all, you are an ill informed outsider who’s “connections” in this town are limited to D listers and Ladygaga.
Stick to blogging about Miley Cyrus being a slut, or all the UNDERAGE male talent in this town you want to have sex with.
****
Go Avatar and congrats to Jim!
Someone sounds a little jealous.
And congratulations to Miley for selling out six dates at the O2 arena in London on her 15 day, 10 date mini-tour of England. Miley Rocks!