‘Avatar’ Beats ‘Titanic’ Domestic Record

COMMENTS (59)

• Fuck Avatar

  -NYU Film Student

  (fuck tisch too)

  Comment by Joe — Wednesday February 3, 2010 @ 9:52pm PST  Reply to this post

• WOW. 2B+ what was J.C.’s salary for Avatar? How much of the gross is he getting?

  This is has turned out to be a tremendous success.

  Comment by The Impact — Thursday February 4, 2010 @ 12:42am PST  Reply to this post

• Anyone who wants to be intellectually honest about this realizes that there are SO many variables in grosses over decades and decades of film history that any attempt to compare the numbers is foolhardy. For every detractor who harps about inflation, there is a supporter who brings up the increased competition for entertainment dollars in modern society. For every person who cries foul on the numbers for the higher 3D prices, there is one who feels that they’re a testament to Avatar’s staying power. It’s utterly pointless.

  Instead, why don’t we just find a middle ground– admit that Avatar has made incredible achievements, whether or not it’s “fair” to think of it as having the genuine all-time box office record?

  Comment by RodimusBen — Thursday February 4, 2010 @ 1:03am PST  Reply to this post

• Can someone tell me what Titanic’s 600m is worth today – adjusted for inflation? And also what its 1.85b total is worth today – adjusted for inflation? I think once both of these have been surpassed then Avatar is truely #1.

  Avatar’s total cannot be compared with Gone With the Wind’s final gross until Avatar too has benefited from multiple re-releases over a decade, it was, after all, these repeat releases that gave Gone with the Wind much of it’s final gross.

  Comment by sleepingOliver — Thursday February 4, 2010 @ 8:04am PST  Reply to this post

• The argument is not if avatar is a huge hit, or one of the biggest in history, or not. It is. Period. No sense in trying to belittle its many achievements, financial and otherwise. The argument is why we have to measure the success of movies differently from the success of any other cultural product in the planet. CDs, books, magazines, DVDs, tapes, comicbooks… Everything is measured in units sold (or tickets sold) Why? Because it is the only count that makes sense. It is absurd to compare prices in the 19th century or the 1930s to today, as it will be absurd to discuss the prices of today compared to the prices of 70 years from now, where TONS of films who will be much less successful than avatar will be “higher grossers”. I cannot understand why so many people seem so intent on perpetuating what is essentially an illusion particular to the film industry because it serves the purposes of studio management but bear little relation to reality. Let’s call a spade a spade. Tickets sold= success. Nobody is saying a Rihanna album is more successful than Michael Jackson’s Thriller because if you calculate CDs prices today versus record prices 25 years ago it amounts to more money. Thriller is the most successful album of all time because it sold the most units. Period. Apply the same logic (the only logic actually) to films and you’ll have a realistic scale. The very same industry applies that logic when it comes to DVDs and BlueRay discs. Why is this plain and transparent thing so hard to grasp to so many?

  Comment by richard — Thursday February 4, 2010 @ 12:01pm PST  Reply to this post

  • Because simply put, “tickets sold” is not the way movie success is determined-never has been. There is no use trying to change the rules for Avatar just because you don’t like the fact that it has indeed made over 600 million dollars.

    I have never read so much “tickets sold” nonsense in my life…….HARD DOLLARS PEOPLE, NOTHING ELSE!!

    Stop trying to change the game. It is what it is.

    GET OVER IT>>>>

    Comment by Sherry — Thursday February 4, 2010 @ 4:28pm PST  Reply to this post

• So we have a camp skeptical of Avatar’s success and a camp that is not. Both have interesting points. So what does it prove? It proves box office is fucking stupid. Look at us: Fighting over whether or not enough people paid money to stare helplessly at a screen for two or three hours. Some people say Avatar is a really poorly-written movie. Do you think Fox gives a fuck? It could have been three hours of a giant penis slithering across the screen in 3-D and they would have been fine making $600 million off it. Don’t act so proud. Get a life.

  Comment by DK — Friday February 5, 2010 @ 5:03am PST  Reply to this post

• Think about it this way in 1997 the average cost to see a movie was about $4.50 in the usa now the average cost to see a movie is about $8.00 If you want to know how many people really went to see it divide the boxoffice by the ticket price. ~133.1 million people (or repeated people) have seen Avitar
  ~283.5 million people saw titanic. About twice as many. U gotta go by ticket sales not the amount of money made sure in made alot with todays dollar but go back 13 years and farther with the same amount of tickets sold and its not even close!!

  Top 10 From Box Office Mojo adjusted for inflation:

  1. Gone With the Wind
  2. Star Wars
  3. The Sound of Music
  4. ET
  5. 10 Commandments
  6. Titanic
  7. Jaws
  8. Dr. Zhivago
  9. The Exorcist
  10. Snow White & the 7 Dwarfs

  Comment by Evman — Thursday February 11, 2010 @ 11:49pm PST  Reply to this post