‘Jurassic World’ Could Top ‘Avatar’ as Biggest Film Ever

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Published
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“Jurassic World,” the fourth in a series of movies that are together among the most popular of all time, posted a domestic box office number of $204 million for the weekend, second only to the opening weekend of “The Avengers,” which posted a number of $207 million. This gives “Jurassic World” a chance to reach the record set by “Avatar,” the highest grossing film ever. That record stands at $760 million, which is $1.6 billion based on inflation adjusted dollars, according to Box Office Mojo. To top “Avatar,” “Jurassic World” has to show it has legs.

One of the keys to the success of “Avatar” is the strength it exhibited after its first week. Most films fall off enough so that they cannot hold the top spot for more than a week or two. After falling into third place on the second weekend after its release, “Avatar” moved back to first place in box office total for the next five weeks, until it fell into second place. The opening of “Jurassic World” gives it at least a chance to do that. It would need to stay above $200 million for the second weekend, $150 million for the next two weekends after that and $100 million the two weeks after that. When those weekends conclude, it would need a very long “tail” of success for another two to three months. The numbers would seem impossible to achieve, if “Avatar” had not done so first.

One advantage “Jurassic World” has is that it is part of a popular series. One of the tactics Hollywood has discovered and used for decades is that if a film is successful, it can carry movie after movie as it builds a franchise. The Batman franchise is made up of eight films, Die Hard of five, Fast and Furious of seven and Harry Potter of eight, as well.

If Hollywood’s formula works one more time, and works with record success, “Jurassic World” has a shot, albeit a long one, to catch “Avatar.”

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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