Can The Force Awakens take down Avatar

While I feel pretty confident it will set an opening weekend record, it's legs will depend on how good it is. If this lives up to expectations, I believe it has a very good chance at defeating Avatar. I mean, the rest of December and January won't offer any real competition, so it's legs will be excellent. And we saw with Jurassic World just how powerful the nostalgia factor can be, so if you ask me, the sky's the limit for TFA.

 

I don't really know how the december's winter affects the box office in the america/north hemisphere since I am from the south one, but one of this days I read this article, even don't understanding economics it sounded pretty a good analysis

http://www.forbes.com/sites/scottme...rs-the-force-awakens-is-being-set-up-to-fail/

 

It's a good article! But if you look at the date it is August 27, 2015. The presale tickets have already broken all previous records by as much as eight times, and I heard that over a week ago, so many more have been sold since.

 

My "Like" for your post was a thanks for that link

From forbes:

"The notion that the film is going to open with $300 million in America, in a month where no movie has ever opened with more than $84 million, in an industry where no movie has ever opened with more than $208 million, is so fantastical that it almost resembles an act of industrial sabotage by setting a bar that the film will probably not even approach."​

I not only disagree with that, it's factually wrong.

It's a matter of record: A movie DID open on December 18, 2009 and within 7 weeks reached $2.03 billion. (Yes, that's the same movie that this thread is asking whether TFA will beat).

So Star Wars The Force Awakens achieving that? Exceeding Avatar's revenue? IT DOES have precedent! It can happen!

(It is in no way "so fantastical that it almost resembles an act of industrial sabotage"! (I mean my god! Do these writers get extra intense hyperbole training?)

 

I'm really sold that The Force Awakens is certainly going to make a ton of money, but I'm not quite sure it can beat Avatar. It may very well beat the opening weekend record set by Jurrassic World, assuming the holidays don't get in the way too much. If it's as good as the hype train is leading me to believe I'm going to see this film numerous times, probably 4 at least, especially since all the 2D showings at my theatre I go to are only 5 dollars every tuesday and thursday.

 

aw, I did not look for the fact that avatar was launched at winter, it passed my eyes

 

I'm sure it will beat Avatar for global box office.

 

They are talking about opening weekend, not about total box office run. December is a weird month to open a film in, but we'll see how it goes.

 

To counter that writer's egregious hyperbole (see my previous post), I cited its performance for December 2009 into the new year of 2010, Avatar's first 7 weeks. Not its entire run. (Its entire run was 2.78 Billion ... 3/4 Billion more).

It's valid precedent for Star Wars The Force Awakens performing as well, or better than Avatar, in a December release. (Not "set up to fail" as that writer crows).

Record breaking advance ticket sales, months after that Forbes article was published, have added additional support for tremendous sales.

 

Dude...Avatar sucked. I would rather be entertained by any one of those pieces you mentioned than sit through Avatar again. Avatar wasn't groundbreaking in any sense. It could have at least been a little less blatant with the Dances With Wolves/Pocahontas stuff....but it wasn't. Completely predictable and not even entertainingly so for me, which is what it could have at the very least been.

Terminator is original and groundbreaking, even though it is inspired by many different elements. Same can be said for Star Wars. Jaws. Jurassic Park. Avengers. I'd even put Titanic up there over Avatar.

Avatar came and went...and hopefully will never return. Nobody runs around spouting Avatar catchphrases....nobody buys Avatar toys and merchandise....nobody wears Avatar clothes....or hangs Avatar posters on their walls. Hell, people don't even dress up like characters from Avatar for Halloween. Nobody tells their kids "OMG, you HAVE to see Avatar!". It was awful, and really isn't worthy of even a fraction of the money it made.

Avatar is about as original as Treasure Planet.

--- Double Post Merged, Nov 12, 2015, Original Post Date: Nov 12, 2015 ---

For what it's worth -- and you've probably heard this from a few different people -- Revenge Of The Sith is easily the best of the prequels, and the only one really worth checking out if you're going to watch just one.

 

I hope so it stands a good chance.

 

Lol, disingenuous, much? I said Dances With Wolves in space....the premise/situations/character arcs are the same...not the aesthetic.

--- Double Post Merged, Nov 12, 2015, Original Post Date: Nov 12, 2015 ---

Not gonna lie.....that is freaky as f*ck.

 

Yes indeed of they joined forces, those green eyes are haunting.

 

Just out of curiosity; if John holds the company record for cookie sales, and I'm looking at Jane's preorders for cookies which are ten times what John had, would you call the one who says "I think Jane is going to crush John's record" delusional? Or would it be the guy saying "You're delusional if you think Jane has a shot at beating the record"? Because I'm thinking it's the latter guy who is delusional.

The only chance Avatar has- in fact the only chance any movie outside the SW franchise has of ever seeing #1 grossing film again- is if TFA is a bad movie.

 

It will be us, the Parents, the crazy Star Wars Lovers parent, who will buy "our kids" the toys!
(the movie doesn't have to be great, just good enough or at least better than the prequels)

 

Presales are insane. In my favorite cinema the IMAX showings are pretty much sold out for 2015 and the best 20% of seats are sold all throughout January already (didn't check the non-IMAX showings of which there are many many more). I have tickets for 17th/18th/19th and wanted to wait and see if it's good before I buy more tickets but after seeing that I immediately bought "okay" seats for Dec. 30th and Jan. 3rd and I'm already thinking about buying some more for early January...

What I'm trying to say is: It will easily make 1 billion, probably before 2015 is over. 2 billion are very realistic, I'd say almost guaranteed if it is not completely terrible and it does have a chance at beating Avatar but I would not yet bet too many credits on it.

 

Very nice Post, but...........................

I don't liked any of those movies
(should i be incredibly worried or just stick to the fact that teen directed movies cash in big time, probably just like SW A New Hope back in the day)

 

Avatar is about as original as Treasure Planet.

 

I don't want to be a party pooper but this sales numbers game means nothing to me.

I still vividly remember 1982 when E.T. took down Star Wars (A New Hope). Lucasfilm even commissioned a painting of our beloved SW characters carrying E.T. on their shoulders to congratulate Spielberg (and I should add that Steve Sansweet whom I met in 1988 wasn't only the biggest collector of Star Wars toys, then).

So where is E.T. today? What kind of cultural impact or imprint did he leave in our collective consciousness?

If I went by cultural impact or imprint, then I dare to say that up to this day Star Wars (A New Hope) still is the most influential film of the 20th Century and beyond, and that's what matters to me (funny anecdote: back in high school I had an argumemt with my best friend - he claimed that people would still be talking about Saturday Night Fever by the time everybody would have forgotten about Star Wars).

 

Don't bother..cannot believe it's the highest all time grossing movie..Cameron's worst movie by a mile