We could care less about Avatar and its sequels; we admit it. We thought the first film was kind of lame as it ripped off a dozen other movies and scenes we knew really well. Google that reality and enjoy reading—and then question why so many people pushed Avatar and its first sequel to the top of money-making lists for American films. It’s a real conundrum.
What we always try to apply to our thought processes is critical thinking in the form of context. Whenever we see a headline designed as clickbait, we often realize it’s an attempt by the editors/writers to get people to read content which doesn’t really provide any context or critical thinking. For example, “Avatar Makes a Zillion Dollars in One Weekend!”
We don’t mean to pick on James Cameron, but his films seem to be the obvious targets here. We liked and respected Titanic for what it was, but … the same media nonsense applies to that movie as well. Thus, every so often when we go down the Wikipedia rabbit hole, we are excited to stumble across stuff like this: “Adjusted for ticket-price inflation … “
This data tells us what we want to know. Avatar ranks 25th on this list, because while popular, it only made so much money because high ticket prices mostly due to IMAX-style screenings—which charge an arm and a leg more than normal screenings on normal screens. It’s fun to take a look at the top films to see what has endured over the decades.
Gone with the Wind remains the chart topper, still: Why? Because it sold a whopping 200 million tickets! That should be the standard here, not the money numbers. When we think about gold or platinum albums for the music industry, it’s always about units sold—not how much the units sold for in whatever format (LP, cassette, CD, digital download, etc.).
In contrast, Avatar hasn’t even sold 80 million tickets. Titanic sold over 135 million tickets, so naturally it resides much higher on this contextualized list. Journalist pandering to simple-minded readers aside, it just makes more sense to rank film by the number of tickets sold, especially when films that cost 25 cents a century ago now cost close to $20.
Looking at the Top 10 of this tickets-sold list reveals some fun info: there are four epic romance films, two science-fiction films, two horror films, one Biblical epic, and one animated family feature. That is awesome variety that represents many different demographics of film goers in the two relevant centuries. Who has seen them all?
We have, actually, although we admit Doctor Zhivago didn’t really do much for us (and maybe we should give it a second viewing now that we’re older/wiser). Then again, we sort of despise Gone with the Wind for its Confederate themes and outdated perspective(s). We do, however, watch it repeatedly for other reasons. The others we’ve seen dozens of times.
Venturing into the Top 20 realm, we do see some surprises: The Force Awakens? It was nearly a scene-for-scene parallel of A New Hope, which ranks No. 2 overall. One Hundred and One Dalmatians surprises us, as it’s not one of our personal favorites. The Phantom Menace? Hmmm. And The Sting is a great movie; we just didn’t know it was that popular.
The three different Star Wars films in the Top 20 all fit a pattern, though: they were the first films in popular trilogies, even if The Force Awakens and The Phantom Menace both had issues with critics and fans alike. However, they also re-invigorated a franchise, so to speak, after long silences. That sells tickets, for sure. Absence makes the heart grow fonder.
Avatar is actually 29th on the tickets-sold list, dropping four spots from the adjusted ticket-price list based on overlapping sales data from 3D and IMAX screenings. Even a film like Grease probably sold more tickets than Avatar. So, next time you hear or read some nonsense about Avatar, just remember that context and critical thinking matter a lot.
Daily McMedia 