Avatar isn't really so big...

[SPazzo]

I'm kind of sick of hearing how Avatar has made so much money and that it's so great and all that jazz.  Well, if put it on a list of ticket sales instead of how much money it's made, it's a little different.  http://www.thrfeed.com/2010/01/avatar-ticket-sales-.html

Avatar is number 26 on that list.  The numeral one?  Gone With the Wind.  Think about it, in 1939 it must have been like 50 cents (or less) to go see a movie.  Now it's >$10.  It's not that a lot of people are going to see Avatar, it's just that tickets prices are going up.

[Skull]

You do realized the ^ symbol is next to the date...

^ Indicates documented multiple theatrical releases. Most of the pre-1980 movies listed on this chart had multiple undocumentented releases over the years. The year shown is the first year of release.

Which means Gone With the Wind was playing in the theater not just in 1939 but for a good number of years and accumulate the 202,044,600 ticket sales.

[RCMerchant]

Now that this film is a multi million blockbuster-I'll never see it. I never seen any of the LOTR movies-or SPIDERMAN movies or TITANIC.I saw the first STAR WARS once...inna theater in 197something. I think STAR WARS is to blame for my aversion to over-hyped shallow big budget pap. I avoid these films...dunno why. I love LAWERENCE OF ARABIA,though. It had heart. Because the desert is...clean.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxBFRfYiDNE

[Skull]

Star Wars was a big deal, it was a movie that all the producers thought would bomb because it has "space" and "war" in the title.

I think the biggest deal about Star Wars for beating out Jaws in the Box Office and then many film studios started thinking about "box office formulas,"  so in the 1980's many cop movies like 48 hours/Running Scared /Lethal Weapon/Stakeout/Midnight Run had a similar "cartoony" character friendship like R2-D2 & C3-PO. Please note that these cop films also did good in the box office.

[Jim H]

I'm kind of sick of hearing how Avatar has made so much money and that it's so great and all that jazz.  Well, if put it on a list of ticket sales instead of how much money it's made, it's a little different.  http://www.thrfeed.com/2010/01/avatar-ticket-sales-.html

Avatar is number 26 on that list.  The numeral one?  Gone With the Wind.  Think about it, in 1939 it must have been like 50 cents (or less) to go see a movie.  Now it's >$10.  It's not that a lot of people are going to see Avatar, it's just that tickets prices are going up.

I think anyway you look at it, a ton of people saw Avatar, and in fact are STILL going to see it.  It should easily break the top 20 before it is done (it hasn't even been out six weeks - I'd say it'll be out at least thirty), maybe even better.  Expect a spike in ticket sales after the Oscar nominations in the next couple weeks as well.

Is being one of the top twenty most seen (tickets sold) theatrically films of all time not that good these days?

I might also add this is just domestic ticket sales.  I'd like to see a comparison of foreign ticket sales as well, where Avatar has made more than 2/3s of its sales.  It'd be particularly interesting to compare sales in places like China, where ticket prices are often lower (both because they just are, and because 3D is far less common outside the US). 

[Psycho Circus]

I ain't ever going to watch Avatar. You wouldn't catch my dead, rotting corpse in a cinema carrying movies like that.

[Allhallowsday]

Now that this film is a multi million blockbuster-I'll never see it. I never seen any of the LOTR movies-or SPIDERMAN movies or TITANIC.I saw the first STAR WARS once...inna theater in 197something. I think STAR WARS is to blame for my aversion to over-hyped shallow big budget pap. I avoid these films...dunno why. I love LAWERENCE OF ARABIA,though. It had heart. Because the desert is...clean.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxBFRfYiDNE

I do love you; LAWRENCE OF ARABIA we can agree on.  I love DAVID LEAN... I was watching GREAT EXPECTATIONS on TCM right now, but I have seen it quite a few times, but it is damned wonderful... 

[nilbog]

I reckon you've still got to take into account that with increased ticket prices it makes it harder to get people to part with their money - so if it gets less people buying tickets than an older movie, but these people are paying a lot more to see it, thats quite a big achievement in my opinion.

[Mr. DS]

I personally lost all respect for Cameron after seeing Titanic.

[Torgo]

I personally lost all respect for Cameron after seeing Titanic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItiIsEgC3Wc

[Jim H]

I reckon you've still got to take into account that with increased ticket prices it makes it harder to get people to part with their money - so if it gets less people buying tickets than an older movie, but these people are paying a lot more to see it, thats quite a big achievement in my opinion.

One of the things I've been reading in a couple places is that tickets for Gone With the Wind at the time of its release were actually MORE with inflation than Avatars - even with 3D.  Don't jump to conclusions here - this means they've been overestimating GWTW ticket sales by a large margin.  Ticket sales are very difficult to accurately measure (normally they take gross revenue and divide by average ticket price, which is REALLY problematic), but it's looking more like Star Wars, The Sound of Music, or The Ten Commandments are the top most attended films now.