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Avatar sinks Titanic...

It's impressive, but I guess what my point is that it's not quite an accurate indicator of "success." It sort of suffers the same problems of not accounting for inflation. Without inflation factored in Avatar and Titanic aren't in the top 2, the number one spot would still belong to Gone With the Wind.

So Avatar only beat Titanic by its tickets costing more, more people went to see Titanic than went to see Avatar. If Avatar was a "regular" (2D) movie its box-office take wouldn't be nearly as high and it wouldn't be in the #1 spot, it's higher ticket prices is what got it here. Hell, it could be likely without the higher ticket price it wouldn't have beat The Dark Knight.

Not to diminish it's success -great as it is- but it only got here because of its much higher ticket prices.
 
Dude 1 : "even better than Titanic!"

Dude 2 (with dripping sarcasm) "yeah, it was better than a non fictional natural disaster."

Cameron did spend a lot of time developing Avatar... June 2005 was known to be the earliest he was working on it. So long as you take 5 years to develop a film you'd hope it's going to be successful.
 
Trekker4747 said:
It's impressive, but I guess what my point is that it's not quite an accurate indicator of "success." It sort of suffers the same problems of not accounting for inflation. Without inflation factored in Avatar and Titanic aren't in the top 2, the number one spot would still belong to Gone With the Wind.

So Avatar only beat Titanic by its tickets costing more, more people went to see Titanic than went to see Avatar. If Avatar was a "regular" (2D) movie its box-office take wouldn't be nearly as high and it wouldn't be in the #1 spot, it's higher ticket prices is what got it here. Hell, it could be likely without the higher ticket price it wouldn't have beat The Dark Knight.

Not to diminish it's success -great as it is- but it only got here because of its much higher ticket prices.
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Titanic, Star Wars, Gone With The Wind, etc... didn't have 50" plasmas in every home and blu-ray player to compete with either. As another poster said, TDK, Transformers, etc... weren't able to accomplish the feat that Avatar has and they had MAJOR brand recognition as well as a shit-ton of hype.

Avatar's success, regardless of inflationary factors is all the more impressive as its word-of-mouth that has created its success. Remember "Avatar Day?" Preview theaters were reportedly mostly empty and the trailers were also shit.

The marketplace today compared with 10, 20, 50 or 75 years ago aren't comparable in the least due to factors beyond only inflation. The fact that Avatar has surpassed Titanic so quickly unadjusted is no less impressive IMHO.
 
Wow, I didn't think it would beat Titanic! I definitely prefer Titanic to Avatar, but I guess something was bound to dethrone it eventually.
 
Trekker4747 said:
Seven Of Five said:
Good. I liked Avatar a lot much more then Titanic. :p

I'd like to know how things compare when adjusted for inflation, and also how many bums on seats in theatres there were compared to others.
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Well, one thing going for Avatar is that its tickets cost almost twice as much as Titanic's did 10 13 years ago. Titanic's release in 1997 ticket prices were hovering around, IIRC, $9. Avatar's ticket prices are around $15 for the 3D version.

Adjusted for inflation, wordwide grosses are very, very different.
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Forgive me, but where the hell are you people going to the movies that it's $15 a ticket? Even in the bigger cities around here it's still $9.00 tops.
 
OdoWanKenobi said:
Trekker4747 said:
Seven Of Five said:
Good. I liked Avatar a lot much more then Titanic. :p

I'd like to know how things compare when adjusted for inflation, and also how many bums on seats in theatres there were compared to others.
Click to expand...

Well, one thing going for Avatar is that its tickets cost almost twice as much as Titanic's did 10 13 years ago. Titanic's release in 1997 ticket prices were hovering around, IIRC, $9. Avatar's ticket prices are around $15 for the 3D version.

Adjusted for inflation, wordwide grosses are very, very different.
Click to expand...

Forgive me, but where the hell are you people going to the movies that it's $15 a ticket? Even in the bigger cities around here it's still $9.00 tops.
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3D Ticket prices, pretty much everywhere I've seen, are $15.
 
Seriously!?! I'm in Canada, dude, and it costs $12.99!

Finally...the Americans are getting gypped! :lol:
 
I paid $6 to see it in 3D. I read an article that says that Titanic will sell 2-3 times as many tickets as Avatar, so there you do.

To see a movie around here cost $10.50 at night during the week, on the weekend it will cost at least $13 now... I think. Tuesdays all movies, including Avatar 3D are $6.
 
T'Baio said:
Lindley, you make a brilliant film that people love.

Yeah, that means Titanic, too. :p
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Damn straight.

Avatar is fucking genius, and deserves every penny it can earn.

A ticket for the movie in 3D costs more than 2D here - about 15 dollars. It's worth it.
 
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T'Baio said:
Seriously!?! I'm in Canada, dude, and it costs $12.99!

Finally...the Americans are getting gypped! :lol:
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I'm fairly certain that it's an isolated, but vocal minority that's paying that much. The average ticket price in the US is still 7-8 dollars. 3D adds 2-3 dollars on average.
 
It still needs 49 million to beat Titanic in the USA, and about 2-3 billion more dollars to get to Gone with the Wind levels. :lol:
 
"Adjusted for inflation" is a mug's game, sorry - any significance to it depends on the assumption of all other things being equal, and they never are.
 
I still haven't even seen Avatar. Wasn't all that jazzed to see it at all. I'm really, genuinely surprised to see the film performing like this.
 
Any time a skiffy film can perform this well with so many skiffy fans demurring, you know it's brilliant entertainment that's drawing from outside the usual audience - Star Wars was similar.
 
Lindley said:
I haven't seen it, and the promos didn't inspire any particular interest in doing so. So how does something like this happen?
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Saw it Friday, and I have to say that 3D is what makes this movie connect - commercials and promos don't do it justice, so it's both understandable that some sci-fi fans are unmoved, and a little amazing that so many mainstream viewers make the jump after seeing the 2D promotions. Sure, they look cool, but not really that much cooler than a lot of other CGI-heavy films.

Definitely see it in 3D - it kind of jumps past your conscious mind and gets inside; a very immersive experience. I really wonder how much of the box office is repeat viewers - I know I'm going to see it again, this time at the IMAX theater.
 
There are constant comments about how ticket inflation and 3D pricing somehow negate Avatar's achievement. It's a strange argument, since the very fact that people are willing to shell out the extra dollars to give a movie repeat business *despite* the premium put on a 3D movie is testament to the extraordinary popularity of the film.
 
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