Box Office - 'Avatar' Takes Down 'The Dark Knight'

It's a win-win for James Cameron. Either Titanic withstands an all-out assault from his new film, Avatar, and holds on to the top spot for all-time box office or Avatar dethrones the 12-year champion. That was the talk about a month ago. Now it's clear that only Option B is legitimate. In just six weeks, Avatar has moved past The Dark Knight and now sits about $40 million behind Titanic for the US record, and a little bit more for the international title. Avatar won the weekend without breaking a sweat; in fact, it was one of the easier weekends the film has had to face, doubling up the business of its nearest competitor, the new release Legion. And $36 million later, Avatar now sits at $553 million in the US, and nearly $1.75 billion worldwide. Legion managed an estimated $18 million, which is pretty strong considering the bad reviews. Faring less well were the poorly received The Tooth Fairy ($14 million) and Extraordinary Measures, the first venture for CBS Films, which didn't even make $10 million. It could be worse for those films, however. The Spy Next Door, which opened softly in fifth place last weekend, is already out of the top ten. The Book of Eli landed in third place - narrowly missing the silver medal - coming closer to clearing its $80 million budget. It should be in that ballpark in another week. I said last weekend that it could be our first $100 film of 2010, and it might be, but it will take a very good third and fourth week to get there. It's certainly not a done deal. So what finally beats Avatar? Next week, Edge of Darkness with Mel Gibson is released, and it has a chance, but I'm not sure it's a strong one. James Cameron's film lost less than 20% of its audience this weekend, and has only dipped more than 20% once, following its second straight holiday weekend. If it stays on that pace, than Mel Gibson needs to make about $30 million to take the crown. Not so sure it's got that kind of reach. So that could mean Avatar reigns until Valentine's Day weekend, when a few films have a shot at the mid-20s. By that point, Avatar will have ruled for eight straight weeks - minus a day each for Sherlock, Alvin, and Eli - and might be in the $630 - $640 million ballpark domestically, and close to $2 billion total. The Top Five:
1 - Avatar ($36 million)
2 - Legion ($18 million)
3 - The Book of Eli ($17 million)
4 - The Tooth Fairy ($13.7 million)
5 - The Lovely Bones ($8.5 million)

Comments

[Honz Brix]

"In just six weeks, Avatar has moved past The Dark Knight and now sits about $40 million behind Titanic for the US record, and a little bit more for the international title." Actually Colin, looking at Box office mojo and The numbers they have updated the international estimates. Avatar has beaten Titanics international record now by about $45 million and is only $2 million behind the worldwide record. It looks like it might go for like $2.3 billion or more

[anybody]

Just thought this was funny, check out the originality of Cameron's storytelling (I don't mean this as a slight, I'm aware that most stories have already been told and new ones play with the established formulas and archetypes).

http://pics.blameitonthevoices.com/012010/small_pocahontas%20avatar.jpg

[Get The Big Picture]

Sorry, Honz, I used "international" - the designator for everything but the US - instead of "worldwide," which is the global, all-countries-counted total. And, yes, when I wrote this, the gross I was referring to was about $1.755 billion. I never know when the foreign territories get counted...it's always a little behind the domestic numbers.

[Honz Brix]

You are forgiven...just trying to keep you up to date just as you do so well for us brother