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...argue that the Constitution's use of the word actual mandates a nose count. Getting it right is important: in addition to its role in doling out congressional seats, the Census influences the allocation of more than $400 billion in federal funds that affect the lives of some 300 million Americans. How many, exactly? It'll tell us that...
...grander scale, Avatar has achieved what many industry savants thought impossible. It has passed the $1.843 billion worldwide gross of the previous all-time smash: Cameron's own Titanic, from 1997. Barring an instant apocalypse, Avatar will have passed Titanic's $600.8 million domestic take by the end of January. Since the new movie's gross is declining only 10% to 15% each week - far less than most pictures - there may be no stopping the Avatar avalanche...
...notes of restraint: First, the movie's income is swelled by the higher prices charged for the 3-D version and the Imax experience. (These formats account for 80% of the film's domestic gross; worldwide, Avatar has earned about $125 million in just 262 Imax theaters.) Second, the rate of inflation complicates any comparison of movie hits from one decade to another. In real dollars, none of the superhits of the past decade - not The Dark Knight nor any movie with pirates, hobbits, wizards or spider-men - make the list of the 25 top-grossing domestic films. Titanic...
Recall that Titanic was a colossal gamble back in '97. With a $200 million budget, it was, some said, the most expensive picture ever made. (In real dollars, that dubious honor would probably go to the Elizabeth Taylor Cleopatra in 1963.) Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet were not yet established stars. The historical event lacked suspense: whatever else happened, that 1912 ocean liner would sink; there would be no Titanic II. Moreover, the scenario Cameron did invent was a love story, and that would scare off the guys. (See more about Avatar on Techland.com...
After Titanic, Cameron got financial carte blanche to spend a bundle on another no-star epic. (The film's distributor, 20th Century Fox, claims that the budget for Avatar was $237 million, less than that of Spider-Man 3 or the last Harry Potter movie.) This time, instead of re-creating a cruise ship, Cameron created a whole new world, using technologies he waited nearly a decade to see come to fruition. The man who built the Titanic became the God of the Old Testament - or at least J.R.R. Tolkien - summoning previously unseen lands from his majestic imagination...