Avatar Soars Past $100 Million in Five Days
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After pulling in $77 million over the weekend Avatar made $16.4 million on Monday and $16.2 million on Tuesday. These are huge numbers for weekdays and a clear indication that it is benefiting from the incredibly strong word-of-mouth. Avatar has now made $109.5 million in just five days of release.
The only movie to open higher than Avatar in the history of December was in 2007 with I Am Legend. That movie followed up a $77.2 million weekend with a $7.5 million Monday in comparison. I Am Legend went on to gross $256 million domestically.
Only two movies have made more money than Avatar on a non-holiday Monday. The Dark Knight pulled in $24.5 million and Pirates of the Caribbean 2 with $18.1 million. Those two movies though had much larger opening weekends with TDK owning the record of $158.4 million and Pirates drawing $135.6 million.
The Monday takes represented 13.4% and 11.8% of their total grosses to that point respectively. In comparison Avatar’s Monday made it 17.6%. That means it is actually holding better than The Dark Knight which is a possible sign of things to come.
The higher ticket prices due to IMAX and 3D are contributing to the strong hold Avatar is seeing so far this week. The winter storms that prevented much of the Northeast from leaving their homes over the weekend could also be playing into it. Still it has become clear that Avatar will not take the path of many blockbusters which is to open big and then drop-off fast.
Following the results from opening weekend Fox became more publicly optimistic with their expectations and stated that the second weekend for Avatar could end up making near the same as opening weekend. These weekday numbers support that belief. Avatar could potentially come near or even cross the $200 million mark by the end of next weekend.
For earlier looks at the box office for Avatar check out the opening day results and the opening weekend analysis.