Of baseball and box office, yep more 'Avatar' talk
Posted Wednesday, January 13, 2010 at 4:52 PM Central
by John Couture
While Mark McGwire's admission this week that he took performance enhancing drugs while he played baseball provides one comparison to the box office numbers for Avatar, it's another baseball comparison entirely that I will focus this week's discussion on.
Does anyone consider that the cost of tickets to see a movie has increased? I think "breaking a box office record" needs to be based on # of tickets sold, not dollar amount because it is not an accurate comparison year to year. -- Teresa, Sidney, OHI'm glad you cited BoxOfficeMojo in your Avatar article, as it's a site I visit daily, but I really can't stress this particular page enough when it comes to the Avatar hype:
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/adjusted.htm
When you factor in inflation for the number of tickets sold, Avatar still has another week to catch up with the likes of SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT and TOOTSIE, and it's even halfway to TITANIC. -- Allen, Berryville, VA
My opion on Avatar reaching the top gorssing film is that I'm not too surprised. I thought it was going to be forgotten with Holmes in the picture, but that's all anyone talked about for the past few weeks when I mentioned movies. Of course the IMAX extra price is kind of a cheap move, but James Cameron knows how to make money. -- Ryan, Littleton, CO
And there are many more responses to the earlier stories much like these. The general consensus now is that even if Avatar beats Titanic that it should get an asterisk because the numbers aren't adjusted for inflation or because the totals are inflated due to the overall increase in ticket prices, or specifically the premium ticket price for IMAX and/or 3D.
Back to baseball, which had its own little asterisk debate when Roger Maris broke Babe Ruth's record because the baseball schedule was longer when Maris set his mark. Most recently, the talk of Mark McGwire and Barry Bonds' records is tainted by the presence of Performance Enhancing Drugs (PEDs).
But, the bottom line is that the number is the number.
It was 60. 61. 70. And finally, 73.
The number does not take into consideration the band box, conglomerate baseball stadiums of today that put more emphasis on keeping the fans entertained than whether or not their dimensions pale in comparison to baseball stadiums of old.
The number does not think twice about the general increase in health and physical fitness of the athletes hitting the home run. Putting PEDs aside, Babe Ruth was a plump man who enjoyed a fine cigar and a couple of hotdogs before the game. Today's athletes are chiseled, finely tuned machines and most of them treat their bodies as temples.
The number does not take into account the explosion in the number of franchises that diluted the talent pool causing a higher percentage of players making the majors than in the past.
The number is a number and likewise, the box office number is a number. And that number is 601, as in $601 million.
When you talk about highest grossing movies at the box office, you don't usually sit there and calculate inflation dollars and ticket price comparisons. No, you point at a number and for Avatar that number is $601 million.
And while yes, you could argue that ticket prices are higher and the premium price for IMAX is driving Avatar's box office, I simply counter that we are a country that is currently mired in some of the worst economic times of our generation. So much so, that all areas of entertainment are being hit hard. But despite that, Avatar is continuing on its pace.
Through yesterday, Avatar's box office take is $441,024,441. At the current pace, it will surpass $500 million next week and should bypass The Dark Knight for second all-time before the end of January. From there, the post-Oscar nominations bump, which will be announced on February 2nd, should carry Avatar past Titanic just in time to meet my predicted date.
It seems that blue will be the color of choice this Valentine's Day.
As always, we welcome your feedback and who knows, maybe you will find yourself in a future news story.