- Credits
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The movie business in general received a pretty amazing gift for the Christmas weekend: The highest-grossing weekend EVER. Yes, you read that correctly; with an overall number of $273 million, the December 25-27, 2009 weekend has now bested the previous record-holder, which was the July 18-20, 2008 weekend, in which the combo of The Dark Knight and Mamma Mia! helped in taking the record with $260 million.
Despite its enormous $77 million gross last weekend, the staying power of James Cameron's hugely expensive intergalactic epic, Avatar was still a bit in question. Typically, any second week drop safely snuggled below the 50% percent mark is considered reasonable. Avatar, on the other hand, experienced a minuscule 3% drop with its holiday weekend $75 million take. It's a phenomenal second week number, bested slightly only by The Dark Knight's second week gross of approximately $75.2 million. The foreign numbers for the film also tell an impressive tale with $145 million, with an also meager 12% drop from last weekend.
To break down the raw numbers, Avatar has currently grossed $212,268,000 in the US, $402,900,000 in foreign markets, with a combined total of $615,168,000...in its second week alone. Where the film goes from here is probably inconsequential. The film has already made back more than double its $300+ million budget back and the final tally (including Blu ray/DVD sales) will undoubtedly be exponentially larger.
However, if you were following the numbers during the weekend, you'd know that there were some other films that needed to be thanked for the ginormous numbers.
For a time, it was looking as if Avatar was about to be bested by Robert Downey Jr.'s starring role in Guy Ritchie's update on the iconic detective, none other than Sherlock Holmes. While, even at the time, only a few million had separated Holmes from his Na 'vi nemeses, to have a film with as much hype and money invested in it as Avatar yield the top spot after a mere week, would have been perceived as embarrassing. It would have been like Orgazmo beating Titanic in its second week. (Okay, maybe Holmes is a bit higher on the food chain, but there was still a serious lack of Choda Boy. Just saying...)
In the end, Sherlock Holmes would not hold that top spot for long, as Avatar caught an amazing second-wind to a victory. However, Holmes still grossed a still-impressive $65.4 million, which would have been enough to dominate most any other given week. Also contributing to the amazing weekend, was the "I didn't even know this movie was out" children's choice sequel, Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, which thanks to a plethora of busybody parents and restless rugrats, took $50.2 million. Even the Steve Martin/Meryl Streep/Alec Baldwin baby-boomer-aimed romcom, It's Complicated (a film I can almost guarantee I will never see in my lifetime,) brought in a respectable $22.1 million to the table.
more here
Despite its enormous $77 million gross last weekend, the staying power of James Cameron's hugely expensive intergalactic epic, Avatar was still a bit in question. Typically, any second week drop safely snuggled below the 50% percent mark is considered reasonable. Avatar, on the other hand, experienced a minuscule 3% drop with its holiday weekend $75 million take. It's a phenomenal second week number, bested slightly only by The Dark Knight's second week gross of approximately $75.2 million. The foreign numbers for the film also tell an impressive tale with $145 million, with an also meager 12% drop from last weekend.
To break down the raw numbers, Avatar has currently grossed $212,268,000 in the US, $402,900,000 in foreign markets, with a combined total of $615,168,000...in its second week alone. Where the film goes from here is probably inconsequential. The film has already made back more than double its $300+ million budget back and the final tally (including Blu ray/DVD sales) will undoubtedly be exponentially larger.
However, if you were following the numbers during the weekend, you'd know that there were some other films that needed to be thanked for the ginormous numbers.
For a time, it was looking as if Avatar was about to be bested by Robert Downey Jr.'s starring role in Guy Ritchie's update on the iconic detective, none other than Sherlock Holmes. While, even at the time, only a few million had separated Holmes from his Na 'vi nemeses, to have a film with as much hype and money invested in it as Avatar yield the top spot after a mere week, would have been perceived as embarrassing. It would have been like Orgazmo beating Titanic in its second week. (Okay, maybe Holmes is a bit higher on the food chain, but there was still a serious lack of Choda Boy. Just saying...)
In the end, Sherlock Holmes would not hold that top spot for long, as Avatar caught an amazing second-wind to a victory. However, Holmes still grossed a still-impressive $65.4 million, which would have been enough to dominate most any other given week. Also contributing to the amazing weekend, was the "I didn't even know this movie was out" children's choice sequel, Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, which thanks to a plethora of busybody parents and restless rugrats, took $50.2 million. Even the Steve Martin/Meryl Streep/Alec Baldwin baby-boomer-aimed romcom, It's Complicated (a film I can almost guarantee I will never see in my lifetime,) brought in a respectable $22.1 million to the table.
more here
