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Poll: How High Can 'Avatar' Go?
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Action/Adventure, Directors, Box Office, Industry
In just 17 days of release, "Avatar" has already crossed the $1 billion mark in worldwide grosses, which makes it the fourth highest grosser (worldwide) of all time.
Even more astounding, if you look at the numbers, "Avatar" is experiencing very little drop off weekend to weekend. This past weekend, the film dropped only 10% from its second weekend in release. Word of mouth continues to remain strong and with ticket sales remaining high, we want to know, how high can "Avatar" go?
On Saturday, the MovieWatcher faithful had an interesting discussion about "Avatar's" ultimate haul in the comments of the weekly box office report.
Right now "Avatar" sits at $352 million domestic, and over $666 million worldwide. That means it has already passed "The Dark Knight's" worldwide total and is very close to overtaking "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest."
In fact, if you look at Box Office Mojo's worldwide charts, "Avatar" has already surpassed the "Pirates" foreign totals by a decent margin. Depending on final domestic tallies, "Avatar" could even overtake "The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King" as the second-best performing worldwide film (it's practically at LOTR's domestic tally now, but that film did more than double the domestic take at the foreign box office).
However, the big question is, can "Avatar" surpass either "The Dark Knight" or "Titanic's" domestic takes? Looking at Box Office Mojo's charts, the $533 million from "The Dark Knight" looks like it might be beatable, but the $600 million from "Titanic" might be out of reach.
As Justin Gardner pointed out, the 3D element is what is really moving "Avatar" totals upward. In March, when "Alice in Wonderland" starts to take over screens, it is unlikely a 2D "Avatar" will be able to continue to pack in audiences.
If anything, the visual accomplishments of "Avatar" are potentially what could keep the film from breaking any all-time efforts, as the repeat-viewing experience isn't as strong -- even with 3D -- and it certainly isn't there in 2D. "The Dark Knight" -- and especially, "Titanic," performed as well as they did because of continual repeat viewings. I recall classmates still seeing "Titanic" during its first run in April of 1998, five months after the film first hit theaters. Realistically, "Avatar" just doesn't have the teenage girl factor that helped "Titanic" become such a huge hit.
Still, I do think "Avatar" has a solid shot at breaking $533m domestic. What do you think? Take this poll and then sound off in the comments!
Source: Variety
