New World Record

Numbers from AVATAR are out of this world.

Explosions, battles, and a climactic hand-to-hand fight between hero and villain: these are the obligatory thrills of the Tentpole Film.  But sometimes, for some of us, the real thrills come from outside the theater and inside the box-office.

James Cameron has once again blown past all the competition.  Except himself.  AVATAR is already the runner-up best-performing box-office earner of all time.  In five weeks the “action/adventure/sci-fi” has earned $1.4 billion internationally.  The defending champ, Cameron’s TITANIC, earned a total of $1.8 billion.  But that was 16 weeks of theater revenue.  In its first five weeks TITANIC earned (only) $550 million.  This means that, barring an upset, AVATAR will raise the bar by the time it is half way through its theatrical run and claim a definitive victory.

James Cameron, director of TITANIC, will have to drink the bitter cup of defeat and hand the laurels over to… himself. But will this film earn him the Oscar for Best Picture as TITANIC did in 1997?  If the Golden Globes are any indication (which they often are), it is a distinct possibility.