The filmmaker’s sci-fi fantasy epic “Avatar” has
surpassed his own 1997 record-setting disaster movie “Titanic” to
become the highest-grossing movie ever, not accounting for ticket price
inflation, foreign currency fluctuations and surcharges on 3-D screens.
Through Monday, “Avatar” racked up
“Avatar’s” domestic take of
However, “Titanic” still rules the universe in terms
of how many people went to see it compared to the number that have
lined up for “Avatar.”
As
in today’s dollars to match, on an inflation-adjusted basis, the box
office that “Titanic” achieved in 1997. Given the current estimated
average ticket prices of
sell about 50 million more tickets before it matches the
inflation-adjusted domestic gross of “Titanic.”
While it may be a long shot that “Avatar” would ever
reach that milestone, the film continues to have staying power. Its
weekend-to-weekend box office declines have been minimal compared with
that of a typical movie.
In its sixth weekend, the movie dropped only 18 percent domestically and 16 percent internationally, according to Fox.
“Avatar” is still playing on 16,000 screens worldwide, with 72 percent of its ticket sales coming from 3-D screens.
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