"The Avengers" Becomes Biggest Disney Release Of All Time

[Arthur72]

Adjusted for inflation, Avengers is still a lightweight. It's current domestic has it sitting at around #91 on the top 200 and will probably sit at #45 at the end. TDK's adjusted domestic puts it at #28. Gone with the Wind is still reigning champ with an adjusted $1.6B domestic, $198M back in 1939.

Don't forget, back in 1939 the sole entertainment was going to the movies. Television wasn't even common in most households. Nowadays, so much more options for entertainment.

There's no way Gone With The Wind would sell so many tickets in this day and age with all the options out there.

[Simbob4000]

Don't forget, back in 1939 the sole entertainment was going to the movies. Television wasn't even common in most households. Nowadays, so much more options for entertainment.

There's no way Gone With The Wind would sell so many tickets in this day and age with all the options out there.

No it wasn't, books were a thing then, there was radio, plays were still huge and affordable.

[Prodigy X]

Just doing some quick math, but I think that it'll come short of matching TDK's $533M domestic take by about $20M when all is said and done. $513 is still a healthy domestic box office though. On the plus side, it's already beaten TDK world wide and will probably just inch over Harry Potter DH2's $1.328B.

Adjusted for inflation, Avengers is still a lightweight. It's current domestic has it sitting at around #91 on the top 200 and will probably sit at #45 at the end. TDK's adjusted domestic puts it at #28. Gone with the Wind is still reigning champ with an adjusted $1.6B domestic, $198M back in 1939.

Avengers will have passed Dark Knight in three weeks tops. It'll go over $450 Million by this weekend and have two full weeks to make $80 million. $50 million over the two weekends and $30 million during 8-10 weekdays. You underestimate kids getting out of school for the summer and the fact that Avengers will be in theaters for the next two months.

[Alex]

No it wasn't, books were a thing then, there was radio, plays were still huge and affordable.

And today there is cable tv in most homes, along with the internet(which opens up the availability of tons of free movies), and video games, and then the other things you mentioned are still available, of course. Which are much closer too film than books and radio.

[Threshold]

Disney could do a lot to promote their comic book division, but they don't. I think we all agree that unless they believed there was money to be made, they won't do it.



Lets not forget that a LOT of people are still turned off by Avengers because they associate comic book characters with kids' fare. My parents won't see Avengers despite my brother's and I trying to get them to: they think it's a movie for kids. My mom loved Iron Man on video, but the stigma still prevails. Avatar, however, was talked about at both their workplaces and they couldn't wait to see it. It was also the first movie filmed in 3-D, and that had a huge draw as well.

I think that comics' perception is the biggest enemy of the medium in the US.
They are not perceived as an art form but as an entertainment for toddlers and any adult who reads them is considered a dork.

Some DC execs once told me that a female colleague of them, another DC exec, would tell people that she worked in publishing instead of comics because she was ashamed of admitting that.

Publishers should band together to promote comics as the art medium it is with art exhibitions in art galleries and a decent comics museum instead of just doing mega conventions where all the stereotypes about comic books are unfortunately confirmed and only the business\collectors side of the medium is showcased.

It would be a long process but I think it's the only one that could really save the medium.

[Threshold]

Let's not forget free pr0n! :D

[Aaric Rivad]

Er, what? I mean, I don't think it'll beat either of them but that doesn't make sense. Avatar was not even two and a half years ago and the economy has gotten better since then. If anything, the fact that Avatar was a December release and The Avengers is a summer release with lots of other movies competing for consume attention is more likely of a reason.

And really, Avatar was in a class all its own. What that movie did was unheard of at any time period.

People keep forgetting this very important point. Say what you will about James Cameron as a human being, but he's a damn good businessman.

Personally, I think The Avengers will beat The Dark Knight pretty easily at the domestic box office. $600 million isn't out of the question. Pretty amazing for a summer release.

[XPac]

Don't forget, back in 1939 the sole entertainment was going to the movies. Television wasn't even common in most households. Nowadays, so much more options for entertainment.

There's no way Gone With The Wind would sell so many tickets in this day and age with all the options out there.

Yeah, there's definately a lot more competition for your dollars (in addition to internet piracy and all that).

You're never going to see something sell like Gone With the Wind in this day and age. Avengers is probably as good (or close to as good) as you're going to get.

[rawhidekid]

Don't forget, back in 1939 the sole entertainment was going to the movies. Television wasn't even common in most households. Nowadays, so much more options for entertainment.

There's no way Gone With The Wind would sell so many tickets in this day and age with all the options out there.

That reminds me whenever people compare TV ratings to MASH. When MASH was on TV there was only 3-4 channels of course ratings here higher at that time. Today you get 130 plus channels then internet streaming all competing against each other.

Seems like Avengers quickly hit the point where your going to have haters cause their fandom isn't on top.

[GRANT!]

Re: Gone with the wind

Movies back then played in theatres much longer. Often for a few years and be rerelease again and again. That doesn't happen so much any more.

Either way it's nice lot of people are seeing a Joss Whedon movie and enjoying it.

[Alex Dragon]

Everyone knows Disney bought Marvel for several reasons...

1.) Characters/Merch - Selling shirts , toys etc etc of characters for Disney is a plus. They already own a ton of characters they make money off of. Now factor in the most popular super hero characters of 50 years...$$$$.

2.) Films and Scripts - Disney realized that they have a built in factory of script writers. Marvel comics is essentially pumping out possible scripts for future comic book movies every year. So they knew with this buyout , they had a ton of stories and all to adapt to future movies.


Disney saw bigger $$$ by buying Marvel.

The main overall reason DISNEY bought MARVEL was because of MARVEL's demographic appeal to the male audience that DISNEY doesn't have. DISNEY does great with females and kids but has more of a problem with teen boys/young male adults. MARVEL offers a key demographic that DISNEY didn't have as much success with.

[Simbob4000]

Yeah, so, it's been a day, and...Box! Office! Mojo! still has The Avengers behind Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest...I think, someone. jumped the gun a bit.

Although it's right behind it, so I'm sure it will beat it by tomorrow. On the plus side, they can make a new thread for when it really does beat the Caribbean Steamers, so there's that.

[Alex]

Yeah, so, it's been a day, and...Box! Office! Mojo! still has The Avengers behind Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest...I think, someone. jumped the gun a bit.

Although it's right behind it, so I'm sure it will beat it by tomorrow. On the plus side, they can make a new thread for when it really does beat the Caribbean Steamers, so there's that.

"Avengers is actually Disney's highest grossing film, link!"

[Alex Dragon]

That reminds me whenever people compare TV ratings to MASH. When MASH was on TV there was only 3-4 channels of course ratings here higher at that time. Today you get 130 plus channels then internet streaming all competing against each other.

Seems like Avengers quickly hit the point where your going to have haters cause their fandom isn't on top.

I agree. It's just silly for people to keep mentioning movies like GONE WITH THE WIND as making the most money because it's an awful comparison. It's much easier for an old movie to do so well when it's competition for entertainment dollars was close to non-existant. Back then there were far, far less movies being produced and movies were a far bigger part of the entertainment pie because there were no tvs, DVDs, computers, video games, etc...

Even with something like AVATAR much of it's success comes from it not being released as a summer movie when competition is a lot stronger. AVATAR also had the new 3D factor going for it and it became fashionable to go see the new James Cameron movie in 3D and/or IMAX. AVATAR had no other blockbuster movies to go against for a long while. No other big movies were coming out to force it to give up it's IMAX seat and no competing 3D movies. Really...I heard more people talking about the experience of seeing AVATAR with it's groundbreaking 3D and the great graphics than the actual story. Did the story actually "wow" anyone? If you make all things equal and released a non-3D AVATAR against a non-3D AVENGERS to audiences at the same time would anyone to bet that AVATAR would be the clear and far away winner?

I think people will be surprised/disappointed with the boxoffice of the upcoming BATMAN movie. I'm sure it will be a big hit but not huge like the last one. The last one had the death of Ledger and that strong performance to make people want to see it. The movie got tons of publicity because of his death. Plus the images of Ledger as the Joker were really powerful and he really came through with his performance. This time around? I see BANE and CATWOMAN and it doesn't get me nearly as excited. People are mostly talking about seeing this movie because of the last one and not so much because of what they're seeing of the trailers/previews of this one. I may be totally wrong on this but I don't expect the kind of numbers from the newest BATMAN movie most people seem to think it's going to do.

[Alex]

That reminds me whenever people compare TV ratings to MASH. When MASH was on TV there was only 3-4 channels of course ratings here higher at that time. Today you get 130 plus channels then internet streaming all competing against each other.

Seems like Avengers quickly hit the point where your going to have haters cause their fandom isn't on top.

Old wrestling promoters talk about how their tv show back in the day did a 15 rating, this was before cable where there were like 3 channels, but they cite this as if it's an incredibly accomplishment.