http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/27/movies/awardsseason/27record.html?ref=movies
James Cameron's science fiction epic "Avatar" has passed his Titanic in sales with a huge helper being the higher priced Imax and 3-D ticket prices. Avatar like many other contemporary films are benefiting from the increased price of tickets over the years.
Today's average ticket price is $7.46 a major increase from the average price of $4.69 in 1998 when Titanic hit the theaters- meaning that "Titanic" had to sell many more tickets to reach box office totals like Avatar's. They predict "Avatar" will continue holding a place in the box office for weeks if not months to come.
"In just 39 days it has eclipsed the worldwide record," said Paul Dergarabedian, the president of Hollywood.com's box office division. "Thats extraordinarily impressive."
Dergarabedian expected Avatar to surpass the box office mark set by Titanic by the middle of next week. He expects the sales to reach $2 billion by the end of its run.
Fox said 72 percent of worldwide sales for “Avatar” came from 3-D screens. My question for you is do you think we should be comparing "Avatar" with "Titanic" when the ticket prices have increased by almost %50. How can they compare all the statistics when the variables aren't the same?
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ReplyDeleteYou raise an excellent point. I was reading about this yesterday, and I looked up the highest grossing movies on Wikipedia. Eighty percent of the top 50 movies are from the past decade, while no movie appears from before 1977. The one 1977 movie on there, Star Wars episode IV, grossed over $775 million. To me that's far more impressive, given that movie tickets back then cost $2.25. This means Star Wars IV: A New Hope grossed over $2 billion worldwide in today's money. They should really measure this thing by the amount of theater tickets sold worldwide rather than measuring in money, which will continue to devalue over time.
ReplyDeleteI never thought about the past price of tickets before. That blows my mind now.
ReplyDeleteI liked Avatar when I saw it. Then, the big blue storm came and totally killed it for me.
I cannot go anywhere without hearing "Avatar!" or "Blue Cat thing!"
But that isn't the point. Movie ticket prices should be factored into the equation before a definite winner is announced.
It's crazy how much movie tickets have increased since the release of Titanic. I saw Avatar twice and the second time I saw it I payed 9 dollars. Ticket prices are ridiculous. I did see Avatar in Imax and personally I didnt think it was worth what I payed for it. I do not think there should be a comparison between Titanic and Avatar. You made a good point.
ReplyDeleteAfter taking a Economic course, I finally understand how inflation changes the ratings. If it wasnt for inflation, it would have been evident from the beginning that Avatar did not have the highest gross.
ReplyDeleteThe prices of everything has raised so the only way to find out the true rank of sales these days are to use economic formulas to compare them to the past.