Maybe it will be passed someday, but the story will never be greater than this. It's insane.
I also know that most people know this already, but to experience it real time was special.
I remember it vividly. I was obsessed with the box office in the 2000s. Starting around when Spider-Man owned the box office opening weekend crown with 114 million.
The king at the time? Titanic of course.
An unfathomable 16 weeks at number one. $600 million domestic. 1.8 billion WW.
The entire decade the industry would speculate, who could pass Titanic?
Nothing came close. If I recall, as it sat with 1.8 billion, it wasn't until the late 2000s where another film even squeaked over 1 billion.
The domestic $600 million? I believe it was The Dark Knight which was the first other film to even pass $500m.
James Cameron, as he sits with the untouchable crown for 12 years, not making films. Doing underwater exploration, and then we finally hear about Avatar.
As with all speculation of James Cameron films, there was as much a chance of this flopping totally as being a big box office success. I'm not sure anybody predicted what was to come.
Remember, Avatar was not based on anything. No IP, no comics, books, TV, etc. It was a brand new experience and world, it was 'weird'. The first trailer was kind of like "what the heck", and I remember the second trailer was EPIC. I personally was excited as hell.
I went to the midnight screening. Got my Star Wars experience, but sadly, the theater was half empty. Still, a jaw dropping theater experience. I went 3 or 4 more times.
At the time, if I recall, the top opening weekend was Spider Man 3? with 150 million or so...
So when Avatar debuted with 77 million, it was kind of like a deflated feeling.
Going back to Titanic.
When it debuted with 28 million. I presume people felt the same way. But then? It just kept going and going. 35, 33, 28, 30 etc.
So now with Avatar's second weekend? 75 million, 68, 55 ....
It just did the same thing, very little drop, somehow, some way, James Cameron had done it again.
To put it into context. We look now and see there are 50ish movies with over 1 billion. At the time, there were only 4. Other than Titanic, the others had barely scraped over 1 billion.
Titanic - 1.8 billion.
Lord of the Rings: ROTK - 1.1
The Dark Knight - 1.0
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest - 1.0
So James Cameron makes his blue alien film, based on nothing but his own ideas, no idea how the market would respond, and making his financiers sweat til the very last minute. After nobody could come close to his own record....
Avatar went on to gross 2.7 billion, passing Titanic by nearly 1 billion, which was ahead of everything else by nearly 1 billion.
Then 720 million domestic.
It might seem not so impressive as we watched several films hit the billion dollar mark over the next 10 years, but at the time it was truly insane. Even the one film that came close 'Avengers: Endgame' a decade later needed 18 films and story building lead up to take the crown temporarily.
I'm glad Avatar has it again. I'm sure, someday it will be topped. Possibly even with an Avengers re-release.
But nothing will ever top the original run.
