"Avatar" Grosses $1 Billion Worldwide; Will it Overtake "Titanic"?

With Just a Few $800 Million to Go to #1, "Avatar" Reaches #4 All-Time Worldwide Box Office Totals in Three Weeks

Saul Relative, Yahoo! Contributor Network
Jan 4, 2010 "Share your voice on Yahoo! websites. Start Here."

"Avatar" is well on its way to becoming the #1 biggest box office moneymaker in history, both in the United States and around the world. Hollywood.com Box Office reported that James Cameron's space epic grossed another $68.3 million on its third weekend of release, giving it a three-week overall total of $352.1 million thus far. That third-week total is a record, shattering the record set by 2002's "Spiderman," which pulled in $45 million its third week out. "Avatar" has held the #1 position since its release and, by the looks of things, might easily coast its way to the #1 movie of all time without too much effort.

"Avatar" has grossed over $1 billion in worldwide box office sales, making it already the #4 biggest grossing movie of all time. By way of comparison, it took "The Dark Knight," the second biggest grossing film of all time, over 30 weeks to break the billion dollar mark worldwide.

To put things into a more Cameron-esque perspective, "Titanic," James Cameron's movie about the tragic maiden voyage of the world's biggest ocean liner, sailed past $300 million in six and a half weeks. "Avatar" reached the same point in half the time. "Titanic" would go on to become the #1 grossing movie domestically ($600.8 million) and the world ($1.8 billion). And now, "Avatar" looks as if it will not only beat both those records but do it in an amazingly short time.

So how does he do it? How has James Cameron captured the imagination of the world?

Perhaps it is his epic vision, that tendency to take an idea and build a world -- a world on a grand scale -- around it, whether it be a real world, such as that of the doomed Titanic, or a fictitious world, where an actual world -- a moon -- is in peril. Infusing the story with the tragedies -- death, pain, misery -- and joys -- love, dreams, hope -- of life, James Cameron pulls the viewer into his vision, makes them a part of it. Critics complain that a storyline might be a bit too melodramatic or the dialogue a bit too dumbed-down or pedestrian, but the ticket-buyer finds these things small prices to pay to visit another world, a believable world, one a hundred years in the past or one hundreds of years in the future. Wherever or whenever, the films become places where the viewer can escape for a few hours to completely forget their own little world.

In short, James Cameron adheres to the most basic concept of good filmmaking, providing in his movies the one quality that makes them unforgettable and thoroughly watchable -- the suspension of disbelief.

"Avatar" will pass "Titanic" in overall box office haul in the coming months. Believe it.

******

Sources:

EW.com
The-Movie-Times.com
Hollywood.com

Published by Saul Relative

WVU graduate, with degrees in History, English, Secondary Education, Computer Programming, and Psychology (and nearly a degree in Political Science). Originally from West Virginia, with stints in Virginia,... View profile

"Avatar" Grosses $1 Billion Worldwide; Will it Overtake "Titanic"?

With Just a Few $800 Million to Go to #1, "Avatar" Reaches #4 All-Time Worldwide Box Office Totals in Three Weeks

10 Comments

Yahoo! Voices

Also on Yahoo!

Yahoo! Contributor Network