Avatar Vs. The Dark Knight Vs. Titanic Daily Gross

As with the weekly figures, what is remarkable here is Avatar's consistency, which contrasts starkly with The Dark Knight's (still great) holds and holds up well in comparison with Titanic's.

Day	Avatar		The Dark Knight		Titanic
1	$26,752,099		$67,165,092		$8,658,814
2	$25,529,036	-4.57%	$47,650,240	-29.06%	$10,672,013	23.25%
3	$24,744,346	-3.07%	$43,596,151	-8.51%	$9,307,304	-12.79%
4	$16,385,820	-33.78%	$24,493,313	-43.82%	$5,578,212	-40.07%
5	$16,086,461	-1.83%	$20,868,722	-14.80%	$6,003,119	7.62%
6	$16,445,291	2.23%	$18,377,288	-11.94%	$3,571,345	-40.51%
7	$11,150,998	-32.19%	$16,464,405	-10.41%	$9,178,529	157.00%
8	$23,095,046	107.11%	$23,232,292	41.11%	$12,122,298	32.07%
9	$28,274,406	22.43%	$28,272,494	21.69%	$12,466,455	2.84%
10	$24,247,681	-14.24%	$23,661,680	-16.31%	$10,866,920	-12.83%
11	$19,418,139	-19.92%	$10,518,116	-55.55%	$7,942,520	-26.91%
12	$18,290,628	-5.81%	$9,629,366	-8.45%	$8,012,909	0.89%
13	$18,466,123	0.96%	$8,755,141	-9.08%	$8,213,735	2.51%
14	$14,738,136	-20.19%	$8,402,546	-4.03%	$11,558,520	40.72%
15	$25,274,008	71.49%	$12,709,035	51.25%	$11,698,861	1.21%
16	$25,835,551	2.22%	$17,191,150	35.27%	$12,726,625	8.79%
17	$17,381,129	-32.72%	$12,764,034	-25.75%	$8,889,792	-30.15%
18	$8,094,554	-53.43%	$6,287,429	-50.74%	$3,022,271	-66.00%
19	$7,327,233	-9.48%	$5,661,240	-9.96%	$3,044,822	0.75%
20	$6,909,167	-5.71%	$5,077,367	-10.31%	$2,841,351	-6.68%
21	$6,094,445	-11.79%	$4,734,366	-6.76%	$2,789,088	-1.84%
22	$13,280,653	117.91%	$7,577,362	60.05%	$7,738,150	177.44%
23	$21,269,537	60.15%	$10,502,243	38.60%	$12,758,118	64.87%
24	$15,756,027	-25.92%	$8,037,425	-23.47%	$8,220,042	-35.57%
25	$5,111,193	-67.56%	$3,742,198	-53.44%	$2,170,146	-73.60%
26	$5,066,734	-0.87%	$3,515,389	-6.06%	$2,386,164	9.95%
27	$4,743,762	-6.37%	$3,002,302	-14.60%	$2,095,782	-12.17%
28	$4,698,802	-0.95%	$2,814,471	-6.26%	$2,200,465	4.99%
29	$10,394,264	121.21%	$4,937,955	75.45%	$7,418,385	237.13%
30	$17,254,108	66.00%	$6,708,833	35.86%	$12,357,344	66.58%
31	$15,137,240	-12.27%	$4,732,505	-29.46%	$10,235,305	-17.17%
32	$11,615,834	-23.26%	$2,112,206	-55.37%	$6,003,510	-41.35%
33	$4,190,947	-63.92%	$2,148,332	1.71%	$2,322,334	-61.32%
34	$3,792,807	-9.50%	$1,805,312	-15.97%	$2,076,976	-10.57%
35	$3,945,213	4.02%	$1,726,461	-4.37%	$2,212,942	6.55%

As you can see, Avatar has been well ahead of Titanic since the start, and its consistency has allowed it to outpace The Dark Knight convincingly.

Avatar Vs. The Dark Knight Vs. Titanic Weekly Gross

As Avatar enters its 6th week, during which it will surpass The Dark Knight and inch closer to Titanic, I think it's useful to look back on its performance in comparison to those two films during the first 5 weeks.

First off, in terms of weekly grosses, what is remarkable is just how consistent Avatar's grosses have been. It has surged far, far ahead of The Dark Knight and remains well ahead of Titanic.

	Avatar		The Dark Knight		Titanic
Week 1	$137,094,051		$238,615,211		$52,969,336
Week 2	$146,530,159	6.88%	$112,471,635	-52.86%	$71,183,357	34.39%
Week 3	$96,916,087	-33.86%	$64,424,621	-42.72%	$45,012,810	-36.76%
Week 4	$69,926,708	-27.85%	$39,191,390	-39.17%	$37,568,867	-16.54%
Week 5	$66,330,413	-5.14%	$24,171,604	-38.32%	$42,626,796	13.46%

Films With Most $20M+ Days

You can see my the relatively small number of films on this chart just how difficult it is for movies to have two or more $20m+ days, even with current inflationary forces at play at the box office. In general, films with 2 or 3 days above $20m tend to have large openings and precipitate drops, which is why they do not sustain such sums in subsequent weeks.

Films with 3 or more days above $20m tend to be 1) Thursday or Wednesday releases, 2) mid-week holiday releases, or 3) Memorial Day releases. Spider-Man 2, for example, was released on a Wednesday before the July 4h weekend, and managed to have 6 straight days of $20m+ grosses because its Monday fell on July 5th, giving it an added holiday boost.

Very rarely do films achieve $20m+ figures without holiday aid. There are three exceptions, in fact, and they are big ones:

-Spider-Man 1 opened with $114.8m in 2002, but remarkably, managed to have healthy drops subsequently. It had a $30.5m second Saturday (the only time a film has made more than $30m on a day after opening week) and a $21m second Sunday. Even more remarkably, it managed to register a $20m third Saturday, making it the only film to have a daily gross above $20m outside the first two weeks of release.

-Shrek 2 had a massive opening in 2004, and an even more impressive second weekend, which happened to fall during Memorial Day holidays. That allowed the film to add an additional 4 $20m+ days to its 3 opening weekend days, giving it a total of seven days, a previous record.

-The Dark Knight, which of course had a gargantuan opening weekend, had an even more impressive opening week. The film managed a jaw-dropping $24.5m on its first Monday without the aid of any holiday, and grossed another $20.9m on the following Tuesday. It registered another 3 $20m+ days during its sophomore session. Its total of 8 days above $20m is a stunning record, and a testament to the remarkable run it had, especially during its first few weeks.

The Dark Knight: A Retrospective

It was roughly one year ago that The Dark Knight began its historic journey to the top of the box office charts. So, what better time than to look back and assess the film's performance?

The film's final tally stands at $533.3m, making it the second biggest film of all time, behind Titanic. The figure translates into roughly 74.3m admissions in North America. Ticket prices have spiked up considerably since last year, and the film's current adjusted total is $546m.

Tally by month:

Weekend Data:

Weekends Trajectory:

Daily Statistics:

Daily Totals Trajectory: