Yeah, but all of its competition is Hollywood accounting too. 
If it makes another 50m over the next week it’ll be in the top 10 all time highest domestic grossers. Now, it’s less likely as school is back in session and all that, so its rake should drop precipitously, but it’s destined to the in the top ten if not this week then next.
It’s already at fourth all-time worldwide. If it makes another $100 million, which seems a sure bet, it will be second, behind only Titanic.
Then James Cameron will have the #1 and #2 highest grossing films of all time. Ha!
Seems like I’m not the only one who’s having fun tweaking the naysayers…
Avatar Crashes, Burns in Third Weekend With Meager $1 Billion Global Gross
Another thing going for it this week is that there is pretty much nothing in the way of new releases to slow it down. Another B-grade vampire flick, an Amy Adams chick flick, and a Michael Cera teen comedy.
Not until January 15ths Book of Eli will Avatar get some competition.
Avatar Becomes Second Highest Grossing Film of All Time in Just 20 Days
That’s Worldwide. He’ll get there on the Domestic chart, but it might take a couple/three more weeks. There’s no way it’s going to overtake Titanic, but that’s ok. As much as I hate to see Return of the King fall to 3rd, I’m thrilled that it’s Avatar kicking it out. I like the whole of LOTR much more than Avatar, but there’s just something really satisfying in seeing a movie that was scorned by so many prior to release, and hated by so many (mostly conservatives and film snobs) after release, do so well. [2nd grade]Suck it naysayers/right-wingers![/2nd grade]
Yup, Avatar is very much mirroring Titanic in its success-to-predicted failure ratio.
This is a remarkable achievement–something I don’t think anyone could have ever predicted…the second highest earnings ever after 3 weeks?! That’s nuts!
For a frame of reference, it’s #87 in all-time domestic box office (adjusted). Titanic is #6 and T2 is #96. At it’s current clip, it should break into the top 50 fairly soon.
We still have ninety years to go. 
I read an interesting fact today; depending on who you believe in terms of what movies actually cost, James Cameron has now made the most expensive movie ever made three times - setting the record with “Terminator 2,” then setting a new record with “Titanic,” and now setting a new record with “Avatar.” (In each case he was breaking someone else’s record.)
I had started a thread about this some time back and basically it appears Cameron was the first director to make movies with 100 million and 200 million budgets and the second to make a movie with a 300 million budget. It’s possible that POTC3 cost the same as Avatar though as you say these things are pretty muddy. Incidentally a fourth movie of his, True Lies, was possibly the most expensive movie every made at the time. Of course none of these numbers adjust for inflation.
If one adjusts for inflation it’s entirely possible “Cleopatra” remains the priciest movie ever made.
This Wiki articlehas two lists for most expensive film after adjusting for inflation. Cleopatra falls just behind POTC 3 in the more recent list though I am not sure about their inflation numbers. Cleopatra’s cost in 2008 dollars is listed at 314.6. POTC3 cost 300 in 2007 and they list it as 316 in 2008 dollars which implies an inflation rate of more than 5% which is rather high. Perhaps they are using ticket-price inflation rather than CPI. Anyway Cleopatra is clearly right up there in terms of costs.
I think that would be four times. He did it with Aliens too. IIRC
I don’t think so. This listsays Aliens cost 17m which is nowhere near the highest in 1986 when it was made.
Ticket prices are nearly double what they were in 1997, plus Avatar gets the benefit of people paying even more for 3-D and/or Imax.
It was bound to happen eventually.
Are you speaking in regards to Avatar or movies in general? In the case of the former, there were a metric asston of doubters, hence why it’s impressive. In the case of the latter–no shit. The fact that it happened so quickly, by a movie that wasn’t a sequel, from the guy who made Titanic (lightning never strikes the same place twice), is what contibutes to it being remarkable.
Yet another solid weekend for Avatar accordingto Deadline.
Avatar should beat The Dark Knight comfortably but it will be interesting to see if it can come close to or even beat Titanic.
“So quickly”? I’d hardly call 12 years “quick”. It’s actually longer than any box-office champ turnaround in the last 4 decades (assuming Avatar does pass Titanic, certainly not a safe bet yet).
12 years? I was talking about the time since the film was released, being 3 weeks. I don’t know what you’re talking about…
$48 million (Domestic) for a 4th weekend is incredible! It’s now broken records for the best 2nd, 3rd and 4th weekends of all time. This weekend and from now on, it would be in competition with Titanic for best weekends. Titanic currently holds the records for best 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th weekends.
Another reason it’s remarkable is that Avatar is losing screens. I went to see 4 movies yesterday at our regular haunt, a 21-screen multiplex, and they’re only showing the movie in 3D now, on 2 screens. No more 2D showings, Thursday was the last night for 2D. That floored me!
It won’t come close to Titanic, let alone beat it, on either the Domestic or Worldwide chart, but as noted it is already 2nd on the Worldwide chart and it will eventually become 2nd after Titanic on the Domestic chart. Domestic, it’s #7 now, and by the end of next weekend it will be #3 behind The Dark Knight. Then it will just be a matter of time, maybe a couple of weeks after that, before it overtakes The Dark Knight.
I’m going to laugh at the first person who sneers because Avatar fails to overtake Titanic. That’s going to signal some major desperation there. You know it’s going to happen.
I am not so sure about that. The posters at BOM seem to think it will beat Titanic worldwide and at least come close in the US. We will have to wait and see.
Quick calculations suggest it’s possible. For example Titanic’s 4th weekend was about 85% higher than Dark Knight in the US. Dark Knight ended up with 92 million more after that weekend. 92+85% is about 170 million which would leave Avatar almost exactly the same as Titanic at around 600 million. If Avatar gets some Oscar buzz I could see it happening.
I think it’s likely Avatar will get a BP nomination. In fact the number of BP nominations was increased to 10 precisely to give box office hits a better chance of being nominated. If it reaches the 550 mark, the “Will it beat Titanic?” buzz itself will push it further.