"Avatar" Made It a Great Christmas For Studios
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It was a record-breaking weekend for U.S. movie box office sales as moviegoers flocked to theaters to see a collection of blockbuster films.
Collectively an estimated $278 million was raked in over the holiday weekend, breaking the previous record of $260.8 million set in July 2008, the weekend when "The Dark Knight" was released, according to Hollywood.com.
James Cameron's "Avatar" used strong word-of-mouth to stay atop the heap with $75 million brought in domestically, bring the sci-fi epic’s global take to $617.3 million for the 10 days since its release.
"Avatar's" massive budget of $300 million to produce and $150 million to promote now seems like a brilliant move by majority backer Twentieth Century Fox, a unit of News Corp. (NASDAQ: NWS). The movie has received rave reviews and acclaim for reinventing the wheel when it comes to filmmaking.
Helping to drive the success of "Avatar" was the performance at the large-screen Imax (NASDAQ: IMAX) theaters. Imax locations generally charge 25 percent to 50 percent more per ticket to see movies, generating $39 million for the 3-D film through the second weekend of release. Comparatively "The Dark Knigh" took six weeks to sell $45 million at Imax theaters.
"Avatar" has been shown at the 242 global Imax location and have sold out through the 10 days of the movie’s release.
Coming in second for the holiday weekend was Warner Bros.' "Sherlock Holmes" which made $65.4 domestically including a record Christmas Day opening of $24.9 million. "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel," another Fox film, had a $50.2 million weekend take.
In total 2009 brought in $10.5 billion in ticket sales to the studios, which are currently dealing with the rapidly declining demand for DVDs. Total ticket sales for the year so far is at 1.41 billion, up 5 percent from last year, but still trailing the record set in 2002 of 1.6 billion.
Collectively an estimated $278 million was raked in over the holiday weekend, breaking the previous record of $260.8 million set in July 2008, the weekend when "The Dark Knight" was released, according to Hollywood.com.
James Cameron's "Avatar" used strong word-of-mouth to stay atop the heap with $75 million brought in domestically, bring the sci-fi epic’s global take to $617.3 million for the 10 days since its release.
"Avatar's" massive budget of $300 million to produce and $150 million to promote now seems like a brilliant move by majority backer Twentieth Century Fox, a unit of News Corp. (NASDAQ: NWS). The movie has received rave reviews and acclaim for reinventing the wheel when it comes to filmmaking.
Helping to drive the success of "Avatar" was the performance at the large-screen Imax (NASDAQ: IMAX) theaters. Imax locations generally charge 25 percent to 50 percent more per ticket to see movies, generating $39 million for the 3-D film through the second weekend of release. Comparatively "The Dark Knigh" took six weeks to sell $45 million at Imax theaters.
"Avatar" has been shown at the 242 global Imax location and have sold out through the 10 days of the movie’s release.
Coming in second for the holiday weekend was Warner Bros.' "Sherlock Holmes" which made $65.4 domestically including a record Christmas Day opening of $24.9 million. "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel," another Fox film, had a $50.2 million weekend take.
In total 2009 brought in $10.5 billion in ticket sales to the studios, which are currently dealing with the rapidly declining demand for DVDs. Total ticket sales for the year so far is at 1.41 billion, up 5 percent from last year, but still trailing the record set in 2002 of 1.6 billion.
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