WOM wasn't that great and yet it made $352m over the Christmas holidays...

WOM was phenomenal, and it was riding the 3D innovation-wave. It was the "event must-see". Plus, it was made by James Cameron, and he was the director of the highest-grossing film at the time.

BK, WOM is not that great now, because people have hindsight and look back on it with their pomposity. But at the time, it was loved, and people were happy to be part of that movement.

WOM wasn't great? This is wrong.

While the plot ended up being pretty generic, it was marketed extremely well, and the awesome use of 3D made it a must see IN THEATERS. The WOM for this movie was "the 3D and effects are awesome". Gravity had a similarly leggy BO run because of this effect, and I would argue that among mainstream viewers, Gravity had worse WOM than Avater. I would say less than 25% of people who rented Gravity at my story actually like it.

Also a contributing factor was that it's competition in January was a joke.

I think the real question is why didn't other movies with better WOM gross 750 million?

Because other movies were loved by fan boys and comic-book nerds, whereas Avatar had mass four-quadrant appeal, propelled by its 3D excitement. It was positioned and marketed as THE movie to see in 3D, and nothing has come close to attaining that since.

It had some of the best WOM ever.

Titanic. James Cameron. 3D. Event film. Marketed to everyone. Great WOM. James Cameron.

Chippy provides a summary.

WOM was superb

Only radical polital visions opposed to it

I agree with this.

The follow-up of Titanic after so long did help it. Without the thunderstorms it would have beaten the then December OW record for sure.

Its second weekend hold clearly tells you how insane the WOM was for this thing. I mean how many movies have you seen even in December to have such minuscule drop in its sophomore frame?

I think you need to learn the difference between wom and your own opinion of a film. Avatar had all-time great wom because its a huge crowd pleaser.

Even if the WOM was something like "the story is pretty generic, but you ABSOLUTELY MUST see this in 3D", then that means the WOM was extremely good.

Fine, but I'm going to have to say, that the GA taste sucks. I know we know that, but this seals it.

Even shit like Transformers cannot make it past $410m but Avatar made $750m and has great WOM for such an average remake of Pocahontas.

The standards to which the GA rates movies are astounding.

Why would you be so sad for the only movie you see in the year to be Avatar? (There are thousands of people who fall into this category) What a depressing life in which the only time you venture to the cinema and say WHAT A GREAT MOVIE, that movie is Avatar.

Ignorance makes the world go round

The irony is dripping from your post.

I read somewhere BK likes/enjoys the Transformers franchise, why calling it shit now?