Avatar is No.1 movie of all time

Avatar is No.1 movie of all time

marquee.blogs.cnn.com

It was only a matter of time - 47 days, to be precise.

According to the box office tally site Boxofficemojo.com, "Avatar" is now the highest-grossing movie of all time domestically. The James Cameron film's business now stands at $601.1 million, ahead of the $600.8 million Cameron's "Titanic" did back in 1997-98.

Moreover, "Titanic" took 252 days to top out; "Avatar," which has been the biggest movie in the country since its mid-December release, is still No. 1 and shows little sign of flagging (and those nine Oscar nominations won't hurt).

The film is already the global bo

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Well I guess we can say we all knew it was going to happen, but I think there's something more to this achievement.

In our day and age, culture and the media play such a big role in defining who we are at a moment in time; and the craze that Avatar has generated is almost unheard of.

For a movie with underlying themes being anti-corporatism, environmentalism, spirituality, ect., it taking the top spot so quickly really does say a lot about where our fundamental hopes and dreams lie.



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(visit the link for the full news article)

Actually there are several factors, such as inflation and cost of a ticket in Imax, which pulled Avatar over Titanic. Tickets back then were 5 bucks and an Imax showing of Avatar is 15 bucks. It hasn't beaten it in number of tickets sold only in how much it made.

Interestingly enough Titanic is on TV right now and I happen to be watching it. It a guilty pleasure of mine and I always watch it on TV when it is on.

I would love to see a Titanic 3D, i'm sure a theatre re-release would make a ton of loot.

Hate to say it but Titanic is a better movie than Avatar. I enjoyed Avatar but more for its "whack you over the head with visuals" aspect than the hokey story or premise.

I predict that Mssr. Cameron gets too big for his britches with this one and his next movie will be a highly anticipated, hubris-soaked disappointment that will take his bloated reputation down with it.

By the way, what the &%$# has he been doing in the last 10 years or so? Working on his Howard Hughes impression? He didn't make a movie the entire time, and he looks like he's aged about 30 years.

[edit on 2/8/10 by silent thunder]

Here's an interesting take on things:

Source:
latimesblogs.latimes.com...

Everyone in the world in the past couple of days has been writing about how “Avatar” has now surpassed “Titanic” to become the highest-grossing film of all time. But most of the stories have left out the tricky part: You can only make the claim for “Avatar” being the all-time box office champ if you leave out a few prickly little particulars, like the ones my colleague Claudia Eller mentioned in a recent post: namely ticket price inflation, foreign currency fluctuations and surcharges on 3-D movie screens.

So when is a box-office record really a record? And should “Avatar,” like so many modern-day movies that have benefited from the steep rise in ticket prices, especially in the new 3-D era, carry an asterisk next to their name? After all, if we were writing about the all-time box-office champ in terms of actual ticket admissions, it would still be “Gone With the Wind,” David O. Selznick’s 1939 sweeping historical romance that has riveted moviegoers for generations. If you put together an all-time box-office chart, adjusted for inflation, “Gone With the Wind” remains the undefeated, unrivaled champion, having earned an astounding $1.45 billion in ticket sales over the years. As box-office guru, Hollywood.com’s Paul Dergarabedian, told me yesterday: “You never want to say never, but that’s a record that I don’t think will ever be broken.”

In an adjusted for inflation all-time box-office Top 10 (compiled by Dergarabedian), “Gone With the Wind” is the easy winner, with George Lucas’ 1977 “Star Wars” in the No. 2 slot, with $1.26 billion in grosses, followed by 1965’s “Sound of Music,” 1982’s “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” and 1956’s “The Ten Commandments.”

Jim Cameron’s “Titanic” comes in at No. 6 on the chart (with $955 million) while “Avatar” doesn’t even come close to making the Top 10, with a mere $558 million in grosses. To give you an idea how different the adjusted gross box-office chart is from the all-time box-office chart we normally follow, “Gone With the Wind” doesn’t even make the Top 50 all-time box-office leaders chart–the one that now has “Avatar” on top.

WOW that is amazing I always thought it was Titanic with most sales. this is also because those teenage girls watched it like 8 times. My wife (gf at the time) saw it 6 times.

Star Wars number 2, just wow. I can't believe Gone with the Wind did that well. Awesome find man!

I have to admit that I saw Avatar 3D twice now...I think it was better the second time...

I think I like Titanic better though... Better story, IMO...

Anyway, I am not surprised that Avatar has done so well, but I think it is the visual imagery that grabs people.. The story, not so much.

I just finally saw avatar 3D. I will give the graphics a 10. Outstanding scenery, originality for the creation of the world. a 5 for the story. Predictable.

I will point out something that I think a lot of people have missed. Yes we get their is a lot of social messages. Most movies got em. But what the movie also showed was a mirror reflection of science and nature. It showed the crippled soldier using science and technology to become a part of the world. Where the big blue people did it through nature or a life force. They connected to the world naturally. With this cool tail thing.
It was a ying and yang of the merging of nature and science. But the end result was the same. Networking. Whether your plugging into a 6 legged horse a computer.

Though much more romanticized. I came home and looked at my cat and wondered if we could become one. Then I decided that I would hear all the time is yowling for food. So you need an entire world where all species are sembiant.(sp?)

ok, review over. This is my first 3D film. Which was fun for about 10 minutes. And then I got motion sickness and wished I watched the regular screen. I had to keep taking the glasses off and watch a fuzzy picture. Haven't seen 3d since the 7th grade. It has come a long way.

[edit on 15-2-2010 by nixie_nox]

Yep, inflation, the price of the 3D ticket, and the price of IMAX certainly didn't hurt the overall box office results. It is an amazing piece of film though, if not a very original story (i.e. Pocohontas, Fern Gully, take your pick).

Still though, a feast for the eyes...

Did you notice they always announce ticket sales and how much cash they took in but never the number of tickets actually sold.

They fool people into thinking a lot of people saw the movie when in actuality not as many did as other block buster hits.

Gone with the Wind is and always will be the biggest movie in ticket sales.

reply to post by Oneolddude


I suppose you also have to factor in today that because of the inflated prices of going to the movies, people are waiting until the DVD is available which is what I usually do. Besides there were far fewer distractions back then. That is a good movie though for sure. I'd love to see it again.


Avatar was great I just watched it and its pretty amazing.

I have watched a total of 7 movies in the theatre in the past 10 years. This is because of DVD/Blu Ray. I have to say the 3d experience will likely bring me back to the movies again.

I can't wait to see this on Blu Ray and see how much I will like/dislike the movie without all the 3D crap.

Originally posted by mvirata
I have watched a total of 7 movies in the theatre in the past 10 years. This is because of DVD/Blu Ray. I have to say the 3d experience will likely bring me back to the movies again.

I can't wait to see this on Blu Ray and see how much I will like/dislike the movie without all the 3D crap.

I much prefer the intimacy of a dvd/blu ray more than the cinema experience!


Avatar was good, not the greatest film i've seen, but ok!

I downloaded it to watch on computer but for some reason the color is darn near black and white. Its terribly dull. I can tell the characters are blue but still the colors are not nearly as brilliant as they should be. You tube vids have brilliant colors like they should, it must be the movie I downloaded.


I was curious as to what language the Na'vi used. It sounds a tad like indian language to me at times. According to this article a language expert - Paul R. Frommer, a professor at the University of Southern California- made up more than a 1000 new Na'vi words for the script.

www.chron.com...

reply to post by Voyager1



I wonder if bunch of overly obsessed fans will get together start learning/talking Na'vi and painting themselves blue? i'd love to see it


[edit on 22-2-2010 by valiant]

Originally posted by valiant
reply to post by Voyager1

 

I wonder if bunch of overly obsessed fans will get together start learning/talking Na'vi and painting themselves blue? i'd love to see it

[edit on 22-2-2010 by valiant]

That would be something. Maybe they will keep developing the language too so there will be more words. I wonder why they didn't translate it for the audience? The translation was unintelligable to me at the bottom of the screen.