In its sixth weekend of release James Cameron's Avatar has surpassed the domestic box office of The Dark Knight and become the second highest-grossing movie of all time. By this time next week Avatar may have passed the $600.1 million dollar domestic gross of Cameron's last film, Titanic, and become the new number one. The question is no longer if but when.
Avatar took in an estimated $36 million dollars this weekend to bring its total take to $552.8 million dollars. Worldwide the movie is already the second-highest grossing of all-time with $1.283 billion dollars. Titanic's worldwide record is $1.842 billion which means that there is less than $6 million dollars separating the two blockbusters from each other. It's a certainty that, sometime tomorrow, Avatar will be the new number one movie of all-time worldwide. If people thought James Cameron was insufferable before, now he's got both the highest and the second-highest grossing movies of all-time notched on his belt. Jim, go easy on the world, OK?
Screen Gems' supernatural actioner Legion debuted in second place with $18.2m, not a bad opening for a $26 million dollar movie with troubling reviews. Third spot went to The Book of Eli which netted $17m to bring its two week total up to $62m. Coming in fourth place was 20th Century Fox's Tooth Fairy starring Dwayne Johnson. A $14 million dollar opening isn't what Fox had been hoping for but really, in the end they shouldn't complain because they have Avatar.
Fifth spot is taken up by The Lovely Bones ($8.8m new, $31.6m total), sixth is held by Sherlock Holmes ($7.1m new, $191.5m total) and seventh is occupied by Extraordinary Measures ($7m opening). Do you remember the time when a new Harrison Ford movie would debut at the top of the dog heap? Gone are those days unless the title of the movie begins with "Indiana Jones".
In eighth position is Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel ($6.5 new, $204m total). It's Complicated rolls in at ninth place ($6.2m new, $98.6m total) and tenth is reserved for The Spy Next Door ($4.7m new, $18.7m total) which is just about to leave the neighborhood.
What will Fox and Cameron spend all that Avatar money on?
The man obviously still has his finger on the pulse, despite my not caring that much for the movie. I am a movie gross tracking hobbyist, though (as you may have already guessed), so it has been fun following the movie's rise.
Most weekend predictions were pretty much on the money this time around, which suggests to me that it is beginning to behave like a typical blockbuster.
I want to respond to the Walking Dead story, but I keep getting a message telling me discussion is closed. Is it closed on purpose?
It's a big scoop, and as such should generate some discussion.
I must admit that I'm surprised that Cameron made lightning strike twice. I always thought it would do well, but not this well. The guy sure does know how to draw in the repeat business.
Also, no matter how pretty the film is, if the story completely sucked, no one would sit through it more than once (if that). Of course, we have the benefit of age to know that the plot is pretty derivative of several things (Dune, Dances with Wolves, Ferngully, Delgo, etc), but for a whole generation (or two) of kids, those stories are unfamiliar, so this is new ground for them.
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Immortal1982
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Posted: 15 years 13 weeks ago
damn. What makes you think hes going for the trifecta with whatever he does next?