Box Office Records

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     Although Gone With The Wind (1939, Victor Flemming) will maintain it's dominating grasp as highest domestically (within the United States) grossing film of all time after adjusting for inflation (With a total of over 1.4 billion dollars Gone With The Wind beat George Lucas' 1977 Star Wars: A New Hope by nearly $180,000,000, according to www.boxofficemojo.com), in recent years we've seen a slew of "Record Breaking" movies hit the box office.

     I first became aware of the power of the box office back in 2005, when Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith threatened to outdo its predecessor A New Hope as highest all-time grossing movie. Seeing it twice on opening day myself (once at the midnight showing, and then again at 9 pm that night) I tried my hardest to contribute to it's record breaking. Of course, the only record it broke was the opening day gross (gaining 50 million in a single day), since people generally realized it wasn't the most amazing spectacle of a movie. But it got me hooked, nonetheless, to following the Box Office, and I became obsessed with knowing more about the history of the Box Office than anyone else I met.

     Since Revenge of the Sith, several more movies have broken that opening day record. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, taking off from it's predecessor The Black Pearl drew enough moviegoers to gain just a bit more than Star Wars with a $55 million opening day record. I was sorely disappointed, seeing as how I was more into Star Wars than I was Pirates, but I quickly learned to love Pirates and was the in line for the 12 am showing of At Worlds End (even though it had come out five hours earlier...) hoping it would break it's predecessor's record, with no such luck.
     Spider-man 3 quickly beat that record, earning $59 million opening day, but the movie itself turned out to be another flop, not in the Box office (since it made $890 million worldwide), but the movie itself was despised by most Spider-man lovers, including myself. Spider-man 3 did, however, gross an impressive 151 million dollars over the course of the weekend, earning it the highest grossing opening weekend of all time, beat only by The Dark Knight.
   Here was an impressive feat: The Dark Knight, due partially to it's popularity brought on by the death of its supporting actor Heath Ledger, beat several box-office records and came very close to breaking the one that really counts. Since I was already an avid box-office watcher, I knew The Dark Knight could break the record when the ticket I bought the day before was one of the last of the 12:30 Showings. All the showings for 12:01 were sold out, and most of the 12:30 showings were gone. I knew that this was going to break records.
   In a craze, I watched boxofficemojo.com, waiting for the movie info to be released. Immediately the news was good: at $67 million, $18 million at midnight showings alone, it was the new highest opening day grosser of all time. Then, it was the highest opening weekend grosser of all time at $158 million. It was the fastest movie of all time to make it to $100 million (beat in 2009), and still is the fastest to 200, 300, and 400 million. It currently still holds the record for the top 3 day gross as well as the top 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 day grosses. By the second week, it was a record breaking movie on several accounts. And the second weekend proved it still had it, earning the highest second weekend gross of all time with $75,166,466!
   I watched closely as the movie made it's way to the second highest domestic grossing movie of all time, rapidly approaching Titanic. Oh how I hated Titanic. With a terrible opening weekend of only $28 million, nobody would have believed that it would continue to gain more than 20 million dollars a weekend for ten straight weekends. But it did, and it that earned it the record of highest all time grossing movie both domestically and worldwide. At 600 million dollars domestic gross, the movie seemed untouchable. And, with an impressive $1.84 billion worldwide gross, I had few hopes that The Dark Knight would smash those records. Unfortunately, The Dark Knight couldn't do it. Just reaching $533 million by the end of its run in America, and cresting $1 billion worldwide before it left theaters for good, The Dark Knight only made it to second place.
     More disappointment was to come when every teenage girl and her mother went to see Twilight: New Moon, giving it a 5 million dollar lead over The Dark Knight at $72 million opening day. This allowed it to become the fastest to $100 million, beating the beautiful Dark Knight. Thankfully, that was as far as it made it. The rest of the weekend proved not so fruitful, and New Moon only made it to 142 million dollars opening weekend, and beat no other records.
     And then came Avatar. People were wary of it. Would a man who hasn't directed a film in over ten years be able to create something as lovable as his previous record-breaker Titanic? Enough people believed in it to push it to 28th on the all-time opening weekends list at $77 million. And then came the rush. Word spread. People flocked. With an astounding turn of events, Avatar completely turned around, earning almost as much its second weekend at $75,617,183, beating The Dark Knight by a mere 450,717 dollars, the new highest second weekend of all time. And it didn't stop there. Avatar continued its winning streak, breaking the third highest weekend of all time, and then the fourth highest weekend of all time, and now the fifth highest weekend of all time, becoming one of only three movies to cross the 500 million dollar mark on MLK day, the 4th day in the 4-day weekend and only 32 days after its release.

     The problem is, Avatar is cheating. Because of the higher cost of 3D, (the need for glasses and the sort) each ticket is costing audiences several dollars more. This cost is setting the movie higher on the charts than most other, non-3D movies would make it. "In 38 days, Avatar's tally stands at $551.7 million, 80 percent of which from 3D presentations (including 16 percent from IMAX venues alone). " states Brandon Gray in Box Office Mojo's weekend report. Everyone expects Avatar to do what Dark Knight couldn't: beat Titanic. Already at $516 million, my prediction is that three, maybe four weeks ahead, the $600 million mark will be crossed, and Titanic will, once and for all, be put to rest after holding the record for twelve years. And, having already surpassed all the films that previously came close to beating Titanic's world-wide record, Avatar will undoubtedly surpass Titanic in no time. It already has an impressive 1.6 billion, only 200 million away from beating James Cameron's predecessor Titanic. Is it really worth it to beat Titanic with a film whose contents are so non-unique? 

UPDATE:

    As of this weekend, Avatar has beat Dark Knight's second place record of $533 million. Earning $34.9 million this weekend, Avatars domestic gross is now $551.7 million, well on its way to beating Titanic's $600.8 million all-time record.
     Another impressive feat on Avatars behalf is its $200 million gain worldwide. The gain wasn't quite enough to push the film above Titanic's $1,842,879,955 worldwide gross, but at $1,838,802,321, my prediction seems to be holding true, Avatar will beat Titanic in a matter of days.