Pick one.

The third weekend and perhaps fourth weekend records might last for decades.

Records don't last anymore. Titanic lasted 12 years, still has some of them. Avatars lasted 6 years. These may only last 3 years.

Previews, OD, OW, Sunday: Could certainly fall in a couple years if Episode 8 sticks with a summer release date.

Second W/E: Until whenever Christmas falls on a Friday again.

DOM total: If it's around $800M, I give it a few years. If it's over a billion, probably close to a decade.

when it hits 1b+ domestically, that will not be touched for at least a decade.

Chippy,

I'm assuming you're trolling.

But a third weekend near 100m pretty much requires at least 1 billion total. Maybe slightly less in December.

Not trolling. Avatar held insanely well, and its third weekend record is about to get smashed. Did you see that coming 6 years ago?

It heavily depends on what records you're talking about. The earlier in the cycle, the sooner broken.

Most records through the first couple weeks are only good for a few years.

And wait till we get runaway inflation.

Yeah, but that record wouldn't be smashed by anything but another December mega-blockbuster. And this SW run is unique, rare and not easy to repeat by anything else.

TPM's admissions have not been beaten in the last 16 years. If this goes past $800m then I think it would have gone over TPM's admission total. But the thing we can't know is what will Cameron do next to put his movie on steroids like with Avatar, so it could come up well short of TFA's admissions and still beat the dollar gross.

This was a perfect storm for box-office, I think it could be a long time before anything else lines up like this

Not even William Goldman knows...

The most impressive records left in my mind are the weeks at #1, top 5, top 10 records (mostly held by E.T./Titanic).

We live in an instantaneous everything age. To see a film have real legs/word of mouth in the age of social media and have a long box office life I think will be the all stars for the record books type record of a true cultural phenomena.

I just can't see a MBFGW or Sixth Sense run happening anytime soon again because wom is spread out over hours now and not weeks.

Those are both unique cases.

Or some other hyped movie. The Matrix Reloaded did $37.5 million on its opeing Thursday and another $5 million fron previews on the day before. Nowadays these previews would have counted towards the opening day.

It's too bad audiences didn't like Reloaded ery much. The hype around its release was huge. Its 4-day opening adjusts to $186 million which is simply insane for an R-rated movie and after 12 years its R-rated opening record still stands, DESPITE having opened n a Thursday. Its total gross adjusts to almost $390 million now. Had audiences actually liked it, it'd have made $350-400 million unadjusted

The frontloading records will go very soon most likely by SW sequels itself when they decide to give some resting time to SW once the brand starts to dilute.

I think we are getting close to the 2002 record for Movies that never hit #1. It will be interesting to see with inflation when this will be broken next.

The fourth to twelfth weekend number for Avatar and Titanic will last another 5-6 year for inflation or Cameron himself to catch-up.

Most weekends at #1 and Top 5, Top 10 are almost never going to be broken. I mean could you imagine a movie staying almost 4 months at #1 in today's market condition?

I am really surprised the Eclipse had hold on the widest opening record for 5 years already.

I think we need to differentiate records that are possible to break but a conscious decision is made not to break them from the studios VS Records that are great to reach but they are difficult to if not impossible.

For instance, a studio could choose to launch a film on a Thursday again if they wanted to and break the record. The September opening weekend records could have been $80 m + by this time if studios actually cared enough about that month.

Those records I find less impressive because they often have more to do with $$$ than breaking an unheard of record. The Monday record could have broken if studios pushed their tentpoles back from first week of May to Memorial Weekend. But it doesn't make financial sense. But if any of the big comic movies had opened on a 4day weekend, they could have broken that record for Monday if they cared.

A Monday record that lasts 11 years for me but was theoretically possible for years if tentpole scheduling had made it easier doesn't impress me as much as say if a mega blockbuster stays at #1 for 6+ weeks these days. Just my opinion though, records are in the eye of their beholders...

The Reloaded wom-killed-it myth will never die. Well until no one remembers the movie.

REVOLUTIONS tanked. That is absolutely an indictment of RELOADED (a film I liked).

Having Revolutions come out so close to Reloaded didn't help.

It sure as fuck didn't help. For a movie to make $130+ million in four days (back in 2003) and then miss a $300 million total does not speak of amazing WoM.

Most days over 60, 50, 40, 30, 20, 10 are going to be really high, as are consecutive days over these figures (might be 17 consecutive days over 20).

Of course it wasn't amazing wom. For some anything less would have been a disappointment. It's exactly the holds I was predicting before release (155/320) and I was expecting fairly good wom. Its as far a fanboy a demo as you can get. Dark/R/Sequel/SciFi. Did Underworld have bad WOM? Why would a non-sequel like Underworld not hold better than MR (holidays/weekdays taken into account)?

Also, it held really well after the first two drops. And a lot of franchise films with good wom improve thier holds.

Would you say Attack of the Cloes had astounding WoM? It was fanboy-driven, it made $110 million in its first four days (same release date) and finished with $302 million.

Maybe. But second sequels often drop 20%+ regardless of WOM, Reloaded remains the highest grossing R rated action movie (meaning it was probably closer to maximizing its audience than people might think), and hype declined dramatically, which may have been due to Reloaded, but doesn't necessarily refect wom that well.

I think what you simply neglect, David is that had people really enjoyed it, they would have come back to see it again and again, which was one of the things that drove the original's success. It might have maximized the original viewers' base, but it could have done a lot better with repeat viewings.

I could start arguing with you about Reloaded's WoM (I personally loved the film, but I know that a great many didn't), but you, to me, are always the guy who claims that The Ring did not have great WoM and at that point, all my desire to discuss ceases to exist.