When “Avatar” first opened, the question was, could “Avatar” beat out “Titanic” as the biggest box-office earner in history?
Now the question isn’t “if” but “when.”
James Cameron’s latest film is set to pass his previous film as the top box-office earner of all time sometime this week. Helped by another weekend at the top of of the box-office and with $30 million in ticket sales, “Avatar” could pass “Titanic” by mid-week.
However, that’s not stopping some from questioning the film’s enormous taken when inflation and ticket prices are taken into account. If that’s the case, fewer people have seen “Avatar” than saw “The Graduate” reports USA Today. And the top ticket seller of all time by a large margin is still “Gone With the Wind.”
“Back in 1939, the entertainment options were somewhat limited,” says Chris Aronson of 20th Century Fox, which released Avatar. “That was a different world, when the only things competing with movies might be radio theater. It’s not a fair comparison.”
But it’s a comparison studios brought on themselves, says Paul Dergarabedian of Hollywood.com.
“Hollywood has always liked to beat its chest,” he says. “Bragging rights are huge, which is why you’ll see them tout a movie as the highest grossing comedy of the weekend, even if it’s not the No. 1 movie overall.”
Still, Dergarabedian says, “Avatar”s numbers are “an impressive feat by any standard. The only thing that really matters is what is the most popular movie right now. And without question, it’s ‘Avatar’.”
The Mel Gibson thriller “Edge of Darkness” was second with $17.1 million, about $4 million below analysts’ projections. The romantic comedy “When in Rome” took third place with a healthy $12.1 million, $4 million more than expected.
Dwayne Johnson’s “The Tooth Fairy” held well, dropping only 29% to take fourth place with $10 million, followed by Denzel Washington’s “The Book of Eli” with $8.8 million.
Ticket prices edged 6% over the same weekend last year. Final figures are due Monday.
You also have to take into account how long movies have been out. How long did The Graduate run and does that include video sales? How do you weigh inflation against media competition. There was no cable TV or hardly even TV in 1939 to say nothing of the internet. It was still the Great Depression and not everyone had a radio.