King of the world no more? … Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in Titanic, which is from one place to another to be toppled as the all-time worldwide box-office champ. Photograph: Cinetext/Allstar/Sportsphoto Ltd
- Avatar
- Production year: 2009
- Country: USA
- Cert (UK): 12A
- Runtime: 161 mins
- Directors: James Cameron
- Cast: CCH Pounder, Giovanni Ribisi, Michelle Rodriguez, Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Zoe Saldana
- More upon the body this film
The winner
Avatar overtook The Dark Knight to become the second highest grossing film ever released in North America as it stayed top and added $36m (£22m) to boost the running total to $552.8m. Now less than $50m at a distance from Titanic’s 12-year $600.8m US box-office record, it is only a difficulty of days before James Cameron and Fox’s latest collaboration does the unthinkable and overtakes the movie many dispensation executives in Hollywood thought could never be beaten. Perhaps but Cameron could have done this to himself. He is without suspicion the biggest event-movie maker in history and has created a fun ride, goal Fox has played a huge part in this.
The studio knows in what plight to make a big deal out of its banner releases. Cynics bear said that if you release a movie allied this on around 3,400 screens, in the greatest degree of which are 3D and therefore likely to bring in extra revenue because of higher ticket prices, it almost takes care of itself at the box office. That’s partly true, but Fox orchestrated a huge marketing and publicness campaign that ensured everybody knew about the movie months in advance. Geeks have been tracking it for years, of course, but even mainstream crowds were aware of it thanks to push trailers and carefully strategised appearances by Cameron over the past 12 months or so. The omnipresent marketing tie-ins with Coke Zero, LG, Panasonic and McDonald’s meant that by the note the rate of the movie came out, resistance was rendered well and truly futile.
For the record, Avatar overtook Titanic’s $1.242bn mark forward Saturday to become the biggest movie ever at the international chest office and now stands at $1.288bn. It has amassed $1.841bn in global ticket sales (including North America) and is expected to overtake Titanic’s $1.843bn worldwide gross today. Now the question is how long it will take to become the first movie ever to transverse $2bn worldwide. Possibly by the end of next weekend?
Screen Gem’s supernatural hatred release Legion, with Paul Bettany, opened well enough in second place on $18.2m and will do well to stick around in the coming weeks because word attached it is not exactly favourable. Fox’s Alvin and the Chipmunks sequel crossed $200m in its fifth weekend and it looks approve Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes, released from one side Warner Bros, will do the same by means of nearest weekend. It currently stands at $191m. Crazy Heart jumped up three spots to 16th place and $3.9m as Fox Searchlight capitalised on Jeff Bridges’s best actor win at the Screen Actors Guild awards on Saturday obscurity and last weekend’s Golden Globes triumph.
The loser
Fox’s family release Tooth Fairy, starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, opened in fourth place on $14.5m, that will not please the studio’s distribution team. CBS has moved into movie production and its CBS Films breach rupture released its first title, the drama Extraordinary Measures with Harrison Ford as any eccentric doctor who might just be able to help Brendan Fraser leaving out the lives of his ailing children. It launched in seventh village on $7m and will require to rely on extraordinary word of mouth if it is to staff in the top 10 and sustain more kind of profile among audiences in the coming weeks. The top 10 chart, originally conceived by the US trade magazine Variety crowd years ago, is a savage reckoner – regardless of a movie’s quality, grant that it lacks exposure in the top 10 its commercial prospects are doomed.
The absolute story
Just as fans of Titanic went back to see Kate and Leo time and time again, so the “Avatards” are rewarding Avatar with repeat viewings. Fox top brass have told me of anecdotal evidence of fans going back four or five times to act as sentinel Cameron’session space opera, and that’s exactly the kind of audience behaviour you need to generate the ridiculously high poetry that Avatar has done. In terms of audience profile, it’s women who are driving this beast. While young men turned out in droves in the first weekend – and they’re still seeing it in huge numbers – women caught on and became the dominant demographic by the duration of one’s life Avatar was in its third weekend.
The future
Mel Gibson returns to a lead role for the first time since Signs in 2002 by the thriller Edge of Darkness. Kristen Bell (Forgetting Sarah Marshall) stars opposite Josh Duhamel in Disney’s romcom When in Rome.
North American top 10, 22-24 January
1. Avatar, $36m. Total: $552.8m
2. Legion, $18.2m
3. The Book of Eli, $17m. Total: $62m
4. Tooth Fairy, $14.5m
5. The Lovely Bones, $8.8m. Total: $31.6m
6. Sherlock Holmes, $7.1m. Total: $191.6m
7. Extraordinary Measures, $7m
8. Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, $6.5m. Total: $204.2m
9. It’s Complicated, $6.2m. Total: $98.7m
10. The Spy Next Door, $4.8m. Total: $18.7m
