@NJ5

In theory thats corrent overall. However in America the distibuter gets a larger percentage then in the rest of the world. Some studios actually get a variable percentage eg 90% of the first week gross, 80% of the second and so on and so forth. Thats why films are more frontloaded in America then the rest of the world. The suidos would make less money if they had legs.

$16.4m on wednesday. Alvin and the shitmunks opened with $18m wednesday. Fox are having a very merry christmas this year.
Avatar will be hovering close to $300m by end of next weekend. With Japan and China opening during this week, figures should be impressive.

Umm, you do realize that "Avatar" was conceived fourteen years ago? Stop hating on Cameron and learn the facts.

Besides even if the plot for battle of terra is similar (I haven't seen it). It doesn't really matter because going native and fighting with them is hardly a new concept anyway.

BTW the film is now at $392,954,953. This film is showing tremendous legs so far. And it hasn't even had its second weekend yet!

remember though, it's also gotta make up for the outrageous marketing budget. So it'll need to gross at least half a billion to be profitable probably.

First off, no movie is in the same class as Star Wars. That movie completely changed the way we think about movies and swallowed pop culture for half a decade.

ET wasn't far behind it... Maybe I'd put Titanic on that level of pop culture immersion but even then, I'd give the nod to ET. Every little kid was obsessed with that movie for a good year after its release. Hell, Reese's Pieces became popular because of that movie. That's how stupid-popular it was.

T2? Not even in the same stratosphere.

I'm guessing you're somewhere in your early 20s, tops. Having been alive to witness all of these movies in theatres firsthand (outside of the original SW, I was only a baby), I have to chuckle at your statements.

I'm definitely talking about quality but overall impact works as well.

I'm sorry but I think anyone would have to be insane to argue Cameron over Spielberg's body of work... I mean, Christ, look at this list:

Jaws, Close Encounters, Indiana Jones, Color Purple, Empire of the Sun, ET, Jurassic Park, Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan.

As for Lucas, I'd give him the sci-fi nod for the Star Wars trilogy for obvious reasons but let's not forget that he also directed THX-1138, a pretty awesome film before he raped it (as only Lucas can do to his own movies) a few years back.