true. but if we didint have people keep bringing it up it wouldnt be a problem and they wouldn't have ruined the thread... o well there gone now

mmm you should watch Titanic. its good to watch it once lol

You are so off the mark it isn't funny... I don't think you understand the differences between the box office today and when GWTW was released.

• Movies have a MUCH shorter lifespan now than they did. Gone With The Wind had a four year run at the box office. Titanic which is the biggest movie of the past 30 years had a year. There are other correlating factors as to why movies have shorter runs (more on this in other points), but the fact is that it is far more competitive now than when GWTW came out. Movie theaters were smaller, and had to play only the best movies, which gave GWTW a massive edge over competition.
• In 1940, approximately one third of every American went to the movies each week. Comparatively, the best weekends in America see maybe 10 million people.
• Movies were the dominant form of media in thhe 30s and 40s. There wasn't competition from TV, the intenet, DVDs or any other major media source other than newspapers. That is the major difference between today and when GWTW came out.
• You really don't get it with your smartass comment about Avatar not coming to VHS. You see, when Gone With The Wind came out, there was no feasible way to see the movie outside of a theater until TVs became common many years later in the 1950s. Today, a movie like Avatar will be released on DVD within a year, be on TV within three, and is already pirated. Comparatively, GWTW had virtually no other way of being seen except for box office admissions for a decade if not more.
• Avatar may get a re-release at some point, but it won't get the 5 or 6 that GWTW saw.

That is why GWTW is a bad comparison when you adjust for ticket inflation. The movie market was much, much different in 1939 and 1940 when GWTW made its debut. Heck, even when Titanic came out, it was a different time because VHS copies came out a year later after the movie was in theaters vs. 3-6 months for most movies today.

Comparatively, when you include other forms of revenue-generation for movies today, there is a lot more money, but its not in the movies alone.

For a movie like Twilight, you had:

• $190 million domestic cume
• Soundtrack sales (peaked at #65 on the Billboard charts. New Moon debuted at #2)
• Toys & Crap ($20 for a Eddy Cullen doll at Hot Topic, and $15 for a bottle of Vulturi perfume)
• TV Licensing Rights (pending)
• DVD Sales ($150 million USD - over 10 million copies sold in US alone)

And it didn't get a video game like other series like LOTR did. Gone With The Wind had what? Movies. And that was it for decades.

@Mr.StickBall

It's interesting, because I'd compare Avatar and Gone With the Wind's adjusted grosses like I would Wilt Chamerlain and Kobe Bryant's best scoring NBA games.

I mean, Wilt scored 100 points in one game. 100 points! But the NBA had never seen a player like him before, and he dominated the the game because of it (Just like how GWtW dominated the movie industry during its time). Since then the NBA has grown and become much more competitive, just like the movie industry now-a-days. Sure, no one has reached that 100 point milestone since (and I doubt that we'll ever see it again), but Kobe scoring 81 points in this day in age is simply incredible. Comparatively, Avatar will never reach GWtW's adjusted gross (and as with Wilt's record, I doubt we'll ever see any movie reach it's adjusted gross), but for it to be having these sales in this day in age cannot be ignored and should be congratulated.

Actually I still found it enjoyable but the FACT remains it ripped off an older film in about every major detail and was one of disneys weaker films,good still but not the best by any means not even close.

The man gave us such amazing films as The Abyss,Terminator series(T1-T2) Aliens,Titanic(ok love story was weak in that film but his famed attention to detail still made it brilliant) While Avatar he didn't do much for detail and used a rehashed plot a gimmicky 3d thing that has been around forever. He just gives the impression he is getting lazy and only getting the same hype as before based on rep and his famous hype factor.

District 9 is much more original a better made film despite being on a fraction of the budget. Not saying I enjoyed District 9 more just saying it was a better film for the sci fi genre of 2009. I enjoyed Star trek the most even though I found much of the plot very silly but still remained very entertaining.  Avatar all i am saying is still an enjoyable film but was not even the best film in the sci fi genre of 2009.(You also might want to check out Moon) It's just that Camerons name and rep hypes it up so much people shat themselves over it.

I am just looking at it from a non biased objective POV and wish people would stop hyping it as the "best" it maybe many peoples favorite film this year but too many of them mix that up with best.

EDIT: on your NBA analogy,don't forget back then Wilt didn't have a 3 point line,there wasn't 3 point lines back then.

i loved District 9, but AVATAR was alot better, and despite having a normal story had alot of things people have never seen before.. very original in ideas

lol Star Trek was best sci-fi of 09? ooo dear

now i see whay u are coming on here de-railing the thread (BTW thats against the rules, sooooo guess what has happend)

Well, I'm glad you enjoyed it then. And I'll agree with you that Avatar's strength wasn't its story. I definitely wont argue that it holds a lot of similarities with other movies such as Dances with Wolves, The Last Samurai, and (the previously mentioned) Pocahontas. But I think what sets it apart from those movies is the world in which the story is played out. No one has ever seen anything like Pandora before, and I think that's what keeps audiences coming in to see it.

EDIT: Oh, and Neytiri is teh hawts compared to Pocahontas, so that counts as something.

Reasonable put it perfectly. He may have not thought it was the best movie ever due to a "cliched" plot, but he also loved the world of Pandora, saying: "Now, with Pandora established, I want some narrative risks and originality next time around." That's why I'm also excited for the sequels that Cameron is planning, because we've only seen a tiny bit of a wonderful world, and now we can see the director take more risks in the story and the imagination. "Avatar" proved to be a great jumping off point.

And I'm not going to debate the points of a "superior" Sci-Fi movie, although I've seen both Disctrict 9 and Star Trek too (and you're right, both of 'em are great!) Haven't seen Moon though, but I hear it's pretty fantastic. I'm not going to say it's my favorite movie ever (Fellowship of the Ring) or even my favorite movie of the past few years (The Dark Knight), but Avatar is definitely a enjoyable experience. And I'm glad it's doing well.

Either way, we'll be playing No More Heroes 2 soon enough, so all will be right in the world anyways.

No no I didn't say Star Trek was the best I said i enjoyed it most despite it's flaws.  I said there is a difference between Best and Favourite.  Avatar maybe many peoples fave film in 2009 but is was not even the best of it's genre in 2009. I said District 9 was the best sci fi film of 2009 even though I personally did not find it my fave film.  You seem to not grasp the difference between best and faves.

And Smeags cool cool :D

You want to explain how I can be wrong about inflation?

Clue, I can't as it's an economic reality of the very monetary system upon which Avatar's revenue rests.

I actually liked Avatar, but taking revenue as the metric of number one when films have been around a long time - i.e. long enough to make monetary comparson over extended periods silly - is just plain silly.

Also, if you understand inflation then how come you don't get it impacts simply taking a 2010 value and comparing it to, for example, a 1960 value?

o dear lord

we have had this debate. you are very late

i. we. everyone. gets the inflation thing... but yes Avatar has brought in more money, if Gone with the Wind was now it would be number 1. if Avatar back then was released it wouldnt be number 1. but gone with the wind was in cinemas for about a year and if you didnt see it then you didnt see it at all and it had many re-releases ect

anyway im bored of the tired subject. feel free to appriciate it being number 1 or please dont post negative things towards the movie on this thread 

It's funny to how far that cult for the older stuff goes, like if anything - movies, games, music, art - years or decades in the past suddenly became godly and unsurpassable as far as quality is concerned (ahem, Gone with the Wind, Ocarina of the Time, the Beatles).

Open your minds - Avatar is a fun and unique movie. Maybe it isn't the best movie ever, but it is damn good to watch nevertheless.