No way. I know it’s hard for a lot of people to understand, but Titanic was a GLOBAL phenomenon, not just an American phenomenon fueled by swooning teenage girls. Titanic made $600,788,188 in America. It made DOUBLE that from the foreign markets, $1,242,091,767, for a worldwide total of $1,842,879,955. It made $201,389,568 in Japan alone! $114,063,718 in the UK. You’re really thinking that TDK will beat that?
No. It opened wide in 2,674 theaters. It did add theaters as it went along, but at its height it was playing in 3,265, and that was in its 16th week!! Titanic not only smashed expectations, it smashed all the rules, getting bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger as word-of-mouth spread. The repeat business was off the charts too.
Yes, that’s exactly it. It’s also a movie that demands the big screen experience.
When Titanic finally was released on VHS, it was NOT released on DVD too. The DVD came a couple of years later. I don’t remember exactly when, but I do remember that I was so upset at no DVD that I refused to buy the VHS, and then when the DVD finally was released, I refused to buy it because it was a bare-bones version. We didn’t buy it until the special edition a few years ago.
No, Titanic opened wide, against a Bond film.
Week 6, if I’m calculating correctly holds the single highest day for the film. VALENTINES Day. (guess why that week was huge)
The weird thing about Titanic’s BO was the total lack of drop off. 20 million dollar (plus) weekends, for 6 weeks? (longer?) That is weird.
I think pirate DVDs is one that will limit TDK and all other films. Pirate DVDs were available 10 years ago, but not to the extent or quality that you can get now. A lot more people can download a DVD, a Blue-Ray hi-def DVD these days. And TDK’s biggest demographic, (young males) are the ones most likely to do that.
Take a girl to Titanic and you have a decent chance to get laid at the end of the date. This factor should not be overlooked, and is not present in The Dark Knight.
Enjoy,
Steven
Dang, I went about it all wrong. See, I took my sister-in-law to see Titanic. Bro didn’t want to go to a chick-flick until I told him about the guy bouncing off the propeller. He went with her the third time (second for her was with her sister).
Well, it depends on the girls you know.
I just creeped myself out. By the way, I’m happily married to a normal girl. 
The top grossing films as of now will probably never be beat. Titanic was an anomaly that is not likely to be replicated anytime soon. Gone with the Wind played for years.
These days Titanic would not be given the chance to sprout the legs it did. It would be considered a massive failure and pulled from most theatres to get a DVD release a few weeks/months later.
There are too many other things out there competing for your dollar to let a movie sit in the theatre long enough to break inflation-adjusted records these days. DVDs, bootlegs, satellite, OnDemand, Netflix, good tv shows, etc etc etc.
You really can’t take the inflation figures of films before the early 1980s seriously though. Studio accounting was even more of a black art then than it is now, and the figures for Gone With the Wind have been lumped together for its various rereleases. There really is no breakdown available of when it earned what money back in its day and for good reason - no one really thought people would care. Gone With the Wind’s $1.4B (I mean, think about that number - does anyone think that’s realistic?) inflation adjusted number is kind of like Cy Young’s 511 wins: A remarkable figure that doesn’t reflect the way the game is played today.
The relevance of domestic box office is growing steadily weaker - theatrical exhibition has been a commercial for the DVD for several years and the total revenue from DVDs surpassed exhibition a couple of years ago.
Titanic’s $600 million mark will eventually get passed - it’s really only a matter of time before ticket prices catch up with it. The Dark Knight is going to fall about $100 million short, but until Friday’s figures came in, it was a distinct possibility.
As far as another Titanic getting a chance - exhibitors would bend over backwards to do so even today, for one big reason - their share of the ticket price increases with each passing week the film is in the theatre. Films don’t get dumped if people are still going to it. Titanic was epic even by the scope of classic box office in its legs, so it’s not a true test to say that films like it wouldn’t get a chance if they came along. Those only come along once a decade.
What propelled the Titanic monster grosses? I heard that groups of women would get together and see again and again. Is that true? Why was it so resonant for them?
From what I remember reading at the time, it became sort of a fad for teenage girls to go in groups, over and over again. I don’t think tht TDK will get the kind of sustained, repeat business that the boat got.
Does Heath Ledger count? He’s playing a card-carrying psychopath, but it’s his last film… then again, I might be overestimating the size or enthusiasm of his fanbase.
How sure are you about that? 'Cause I’m pretty sure - but not 100% - that you have it backwards. I think the studio’s take decreases the longer the movie plays.
And ~$30 million (or whatever it made) for a big budget epic would be a colossal failure these days. I was just reading a couple months ago that The Incredible Hulk would basically be considered a flop if it didn’t gross $60 million in its first weekend.
Titanic probably benefitted to a large degree from being a winter release, too.
We’re saying the same thing. The exhibitor is the theater. The studio is the… well, studio.
But then Titanic wouldn’t open to $28 million today either - if you’re adjusting its total box office, you’ve got to talk about it’s opening weekend adjusting as well. That makes it about $40 some million when accounting for 10 years of ticket prices, and then you’ve got to talk about the fact that films are far more front loaded these days, which has puffed up opening weekends to a degree.
It did to some extent - the week between Christmas and New Years can be the most lucrative on the schedule, depending on how the calendar falls. But summer remains the best time to release a film because of weekday box office, which is about 25% higher than other seasons, and can make a big difference (the opening weekend is kind of a wash - Batman’s going to open big no matter where you put it on the calendar).
First thing I thought off when I read the thread title. When I read your warning I thought of this thread.
The Dark Knight has busted into the Top 10 of all-time at #8.
It should break into the Top 5 this weekend. I don’t know why, but this is fascinating to me.
Repeat business but there is a large chunk of the population that either sees very few movies a year or hardly ever see a movie at all, and they came to see Titanic. People who normally sit at home and wait for it to come to cable, got off the couch and went to see Titanic. Very similar to what happened with Star Wars.
Basically for Titanic to get that big three factors happened; the stars aligned, the gods smiled, and the dice came up 7.
Ouch! Down nearly 42% on week 3. If that keeps up, which is typical, next week is $24 mil, then $13 mil, then $8 mil.
It’ll probably end up #2 or #3… after Titanic, of course.
(How did Shrek 2 get to be #3? That taints the whole list.)
If he’s prepared. 
Warnings be damned! That was the only reason I clicked on the thread.
Where I am in China, it seems like everyone has seen Titanic. I still hear “My Heart Will Go On” around once a week, and sometimes my neighbors blast it with their home karaoke set-up. What seems to be appealing is that the story is so easily understandable, the visuals so florid and epic, and the dialogue remarkably simple. Everyone studies English in China (most people not very well), but a lot of the scenes were simple enough for even awful students of the language to understand. Also, Celine Dion’s style of music is by far the most popular kind here, which only helped.
The Dark Knight would have not nearly the same type of appeal here. It’s a moot point, anyway, since it’s probably not going to be released in the People’s Republic.
That is a real head scratcher ain’t it. As well as Pirates 2.
These were both sequels to big hit films but were universally considered subpar to their prequels.
Both were family friendly. Maybe that had something to do with it. Otherwise I’ve got nuthin.