Filed under: Movie News, Cinematical
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As you total up your bills for the holidays, wrap your head around this figure: $2.8 billion](Avatar - Box Office Mojo). That’s how much money James Cameron’s ‘Avatar’](Avatar (2009) - Movie | Moviefone) has grossed in worldwide box office receipts. It doesn’t include receipts for the basic, non-collector’s edition on DVD and Blu-ray, released in April, which broke sales records, nor for the recent “Extended Collector’s Edition.” Nor does it include video on demand sales, which one might assume would also be record-breaking. Yet the film barely placed in the top 10 for 2010 list just announced by Comcast, the largest cable operator in the United States.
Variety notes that ‘The Blind Side,’](The Blind Side (2009) - Movie | Moviefone) which earned only about 1/3 of what ‘Avatar’ did in domestic box office, ended up the #1 title on Comcast’s “top-performing” list, with ‘Couples Retreat,’ ‘The Twilight Saga: New Moon,’ ‘Hot Tub Time Machine’ and ‘The Hurt Locker’ rounding out the top five. In their statement, Comcast pushes the party line: “Movies available the same day as DVD release are consistently among the top-performing content On Demand,” and Variety agrees, pointing out that ‘Avatar’ was the only on demand title not available day-and-date with the DVD. Yet there’s also some indication that audiences favor video on demand services to catch up with titles that they missed in theaters.