James Cameron just understands on another level on how to get people to see his movies. Whether people like them or not is one thing, but I love his impact on movie going is undeniable.

Brian Earl Spilner said:

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I mean, Incredibles 2 is on our list. Every country has some random ones.

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But Incredibles 2 was a guaranteed blockbuster. You sound surprised it made a lot of money.

I am very surprised it made $600M, yes.

The first one made $631M worldwide. The second made almost that much domestically. It was an insane jump.

Incredibles 2 was the perfect storm.

1) It has been 13-1/2 years since the original, time for kids who saw it to become grownups and potentially have kids of their own to take to see it.
2) There is a character for every member of the family to like - dad, mom, daughter, son, baby.
3) Kids love animation and kids love superheroes, and it combined both.
4) It fell into a really remarkable spot in the schedule that year.

Infinity War came out on April 27, so if you were going to take the kids to see it once or twice, you had already done that.
Deadpool 2 came out on May 18th, can't take the kids to see that.
Solo came out on May 25th, and tanked considering its pedigree. And was PG-13 I think.
Ocean's 8 came out on June 8, no kid wants to see that.
Incredibles 2 came out on June 15 - the only kids movie that had come out in months was "Show Dogs" which my wife and I subtitled "Will Arnett gotta eat". Before that, the last solely kid movie to come out that yeare had been the Oscar-nominated tour de force Sherlock Gnomes back in March.

After Incredibles, you had Jurassic World 2, but you don't take little kids and a lot of girls to see scary dinosaurs. The next kids movie to come out was Hotel Transylvania 3: Sandler wants to buy a coutnry.

Perfect storm.

Next ..... pic.twitter.com/jwC4zFXsno

— jūstîn g@nësh (@JustinGanesh13) January 18, 2023

Will surpass Infinity War's 1.37B for #4 on the overseas chart on Thursday.

$600M domestic should happen on Sunday. $700M looking within reach now.

Should take out both Infinity War and Force Awakens on the all-time chart to climb into #4 by the end of next weekend (weekend #7), probably.

Avatar 2 added $1.9 million on Thursday, a slight tick up from Wednesday, to reach $578.2 million domestic. It's basically halfway between #14 and #12 on the domestic list, trailing The Incredibles 2 by $30 million going into the weekend.

It's $45 million shy of the top 10 (Avengers, $623m), $140 million shy of the top 5 (Maverick, $718m), $207 million shy of the original Avatar ($785m), and $236 million shy of the Top 3 (No Way Home, $814 million).
Those are all domestic #s.


Avatar 2 passed Infinity War for 4th on the all-time International list. It has made $1.374 billion now in the rest of the world. Titanic is next at $1.548 billion.

Worldwide all-time it's at $1.952 billion, so will become just the 6th movie to hit $2 billion worldwide this weekend and probably pass, or just about pass Infinity War and The Force Awakens, which are at $2.048bn and $2.064bn respectively.

Avatar 2's theater count dropped on the 13th from 4,340 to 4,045. It's made at least $1 million per day for 35 straight days. That will be another record to watch. I'm not sure of the top 10 on consecutive days making $1 million or more other than that Titanic, Avatar, and Maverick are at the top.

By comparison, the list of some of the top 10 for domestic gross includes:

The Force Awakens: 45 days, by which time it had hit $895.7 million

Endgame: 38 days, by which time it had made $815 million

No Way Home: 39 days, by which time it had made $720.9 million

Avatar: 80 days, by which time it had made $720.6 million

Black Panther: 52 days, by which time it had made $665.6 million

Infinity War, 45 days, by which time it had made $655 million

Titanic: 101 days, by which time it had made $516 million

Avengers: 52 days, which time it had made $598 million

Incredibles 2: 52 days, by which time it had made $583 million

Mavierck: 75 days, by which time it had made $664 million

Titanic is the all-time fascinator on this list. It never made more than $13 million on any single day of its run, and that day was day 58 at the theater - Valentines' Day, 1998.

So far, Way of Water has been underperforming Maverick on weekdays, but beating it out on weekends. Let's see if that trend holds, although it seems unlikely now.

Biggest sixth weekends:
1. Avatar - $35M
2. Frozen - $28M
3. Maverick - $26M
4. Titanic - $25M

Early projection is currently $22.5M, which would put it right at the $600M mark by Sunday.

China continues to hold incredibly strong, and is now outgrossing domestic dailys for Way of Water.

Will cross $2B either Saturday or Sunday.

China

Yes, we all dislike China, but it's a very significant market for box office..

That’s it!
After crossing 1.4B overseas, #AvatarTheWayOfWater CROSSED THE 2B mark at Global #BoxOffice, 7 days before 1st #Avatar did.
A 1st at pandemic
6th in History#JamesCameron’s 3rd film to do so
2.02B cume.
By next THU’ll beat #InfinityWar’s 2.05B
Eyeing a 2.3B-2.45B run. pic.twitter.com/x9RwmEzJmM

— Luiz Fernando (@Luiz_Fernando_J) January 22, 2023

James Cameron has three $2B+ movies.

Avatar 2 is up to $597 million domestically after the weekend. It should pass Incredibles 2 next weekend. It had a tremendous Saturday, another $9.3 million and $5.7 million on Sunday.

Puss in Boots came in second for the weekend and is now up to $126.4 million. That pushes PnB up to 13th for movies released in 2022, jumping sad-sack Lightyear and Nope. It will need to reach $168 million to make the top 10 for 2022.

Avatar 2's next targets are:

#12 Incredibles 2 $608m
#11 The Last Jedi $620m
#10 The Avengers $623m

Black Panther 2 is still out in about 1,500 theaters and chugging along at $451m. I think I read somewhere that it was going to Disney+ on February 1. It's $48 million short of Age of Ultron and $9 million shot of A New Hope, so we'll see if they keep it out there to push it up a bit more. Still 24th al-time is no slouch.

Brian Earl Spilner said:

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That is pretty wild.

Also wild -- Zoe Saldana is about to add two more billion dollar movies to her resume.

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Can she make it six?

Guardians 3 in 2023, Avatar 3 in 2024.

Edit: In this case I meant $1B+. Her $2B record is unreachable I think. Outside shot at making it 5.

Damon Lindelof should cast her in his new Star Wars movie. Make her a red alien. Bam, $2B guaranteed.

The Porkchop Express said:

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It's $48 million short of Age of Ultron and $9 million shot of A New Hope, so we'll see if they keep it out there to push it up a bit more. Still 24th al-time is no slouch.

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Do the rankings account for inflation, or straight dollar to dollar comparison? Specifically in regards to the reference to A New Hope

Adjusted for inflation is hardly worth discussing because the top 10 is almost impossible to crack these days.

TFA is at #11 on that chart.

Brian Earl Spilner said:

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Adjusted for inflation is hardly worth discussing because the top 10 is almost impossible to crack these days.

TFA is at #11 on that chart.

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Maybe not worth extended discussion, but definitely relevant!

As soon as Way of Water hits $600M, it'll pass American Graffiti for #51 all-time, and Airport for #50.

(Side-note: What the hell is Airport? Not Airplane! Airport.)

On another note, [Unspecified Asian Country] has entered its New Year festival, meaning only local films will get the bulk of their box office. Should just about do it for any significant updates for that country. Should please a certain person on this thread.

Brian Earl Spilner said:

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As soon as Way of Water hits $600M, it'll pass American Graffiti for #51 all-time, and Airport for #50.

(Side-note: What the hell is Airport? Not Airplane! Airport.)

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You should watch it and it's sequels. Disaster movies I loved as a kid growing up. The one where the 747 crashes and falls to the bottom of the ocean intact is awesome and totally ridiculous.

Brian Earl Spilner said:

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Adjusted for inflation is hardly worth discussing because the top 10 is almost impossible to crack these days.

TFA is at #11 on that chart.

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1997 flick in the Top 5, and 2015 in the Top 11.

Looking at the adjusted for inflation chart helps to remind the most popular movies of all time didn't all come out in the last couple of decades.

For the first time since 1983 - 40 years ago - the two highest-grossing films of the year worldwide have been nominated for Best Picture.

Then, it was E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL and TOOTSIE.

Now, it’s AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER and TOP GUN: MAVERICK. pic.twitter.com/4zYQqzOFKS

— Johnny Sobczak (@JohnnySobczak) January 24, 2023

Avatar 2 dropped about 300 theaters starting Monday to 3,790 and its gross dropped to $1.58 million domestic, leaving it a mere $10,000 short of the $600 million slot at $599,990,204. It was the only movie to crack $1 million for the day. Tom Hanks's A Man Called Otto made $854,000 and is up to $36 million in 3 weeks and Puss in Boots 2 made $795,000 to reach $127.5 million in a little over a month. Avatar 2 is just about $8 million behind Incredibles 2 for 12th place all-time, so should pass it on the weekend.

Internationally, it's up to $1.425 billion, about $123 million short of Titanic. Worldwide it's cracked $2 billion at $2.025 billion. Infinity War and The Force Awakens should both fall in the next 1-2 weeks.

Gig-Em2003 said:

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Brian Earl Spilner said:

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As soon as Way of Water hits $600M, it'll pass American Graffiti for #51 all-time, and Airport for #50.

(Side-note: What the hell is Airport? Not Airplane! Airport.)

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You should watch it and it's sequels. Disaster movies I loved as a kid growing up. The one where the 747 crashes and falls to the bottom of the ocean intact is awesome and totally ridiculous.

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Surely* those Airport movies (and disaster movies like it) was what Airplane! was spoofing?





*And any Airplane! fan should know how to respond to this.

Brian Earl Spilner said:

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So far, Way of Water has been underperforming Maverick on weekdays, but beating it out on weekends. Let's see if that trend holds, although it seems unlikely now.

Biggest sixth weekends:
1. Avatar - $35M
2. Frozen - $28M
3. Maverick - $26M
4. Titanic - $25M

Early projection is currently $22.5M, which would put it right at the $600M mark by Sunday.

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I know my experience on Avatar with weekday/weekends doesn't mean much, but because of run time, it would be very difficult to take kids to this movie during the weekdays.

At our nearest theaters, these last couple weeks, they were starting Avatar at 7 (regular) and 7:40 (MXT/3D). So, at best, you are getting out of there with kids at 10:20 on a school night. And that is also a real deterrent to those who have to work early in the morning.

While I wondered why the theater wouldn't run it at 6 for the family crowd, just to get out by 9:30 or so, the 6 pm start would be real tough for anybody coming home from work or even an after-school practice.

I have to think that the market on these 3+ hour movies during the week is pretty small.

Avatar 2 made an estimated $2 million domestic on Tuesday to break $600 million domestic, the 13th movie to ever do so, and the third to do it in the 2020s, following Spider-Man: NO Way Home and Top Gun: Maverick. It now trails Incredibles 2 by fewer than $7 million for 12th-place all time.

The Tom Hanks movie, a Man Called Otto, a charming tale of a guy who keeps getting interrupted while trying to kill himself, is showing some legs, hitting for $1.56 million on Tuesday thanks to old people and is up to $37.5 million.

Avatar 2 is now just $3 million behind Infinity War for 5th all-time Worldwide. It will pass the Force Awakens there in the next day or two. It remains 4th all-time in International box office, and is $105 million short of Titanic at $1.548 billion.

Here's a crazy fact, in the past 25 years, only 3 movies have been #1 for 6 straight weekends.

Take a wild guess which 3.

NWH had 6, but not consecutive, thanks to Scream knocking it out. So James Cameron holds that distinction all by himself.

Iowaggie said:

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Gig-Em2003 said:

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Brian Earl Spilner said:

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As soon as Way of Water hits $600M, it'll pass American Graffiti for #51 all-time, and Airport for #50.

(Side-note: What the hell is Airport? Not Airplane! Airport.)

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You should watch it and it's sequels. Disaster movies I loved as a kid growing up. The one where the 747 crashes and falls to the bottom of the ocean intact is awesome and totally ridiculous.

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Surely* those Airport movies (and disaster movies like it) was what Airplane! was spoofing?





*And any Airplane! fan should know how to respond to this.

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Yes Airplane! was a spoof of all of those movies.

And don't call me Shirley.

Just thinking about what a 2 billion box means.
There are 8 billion people in the world roughly, so that's an average of 25 cents per person spent on this film.

World GDP is 96 trillion, consumer GDP is maybe 60 trillion of that. The movie has been open for around 10 percent of a year. So that's about 6 trillion of consumer GDP since it opened. Meaning one in every 3000 dollars worldwide spent by consumers since it opened has been on that movie worldwide.

So that's fun.

oragator said:

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There are billion people in the world roughly

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Counterpoint said:

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oragator said:

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There are billion people in the world roughly

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It was 8 billion, just a typo, the math is right.

Avatar 2 has passed Infinity War for 5th all-time globally at $2.053 billion. Next up is The Force Awakens at $2.064 billion.