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Gone With the Wind, Titanic, Star Wars, and Lord of the Rings are some of the biggest money making movies of all time.  In a very short time span, one movie proved that it belongs at the top of that list, and no shocker…..it’s Avatar.  The 10 year James Cameron sci-fi epic is going to surpass Titanic in ticket sales to become the biggest movie of all time.

Who the hell is this James Cameron guy everyone talks about?  Oh yea, I think he had some small cameo in Entourage and convinced Vinny Chase to do Aquaman, which became the biggest selling movie of all time.  This guy cannot be stopped, even in a fictional movie he manages huge success.  This guy is a directing legend.

But Avatar did have some help to push it to become #1 of all time, even help that wasn’t around for Cameron’s predecessor Titanic 10 years ago in 1999.

This movie was made in 3D, a technology that was not around 10 years ago.  Now it is becoming the standard but growing up 3D was a cheap gimmick that was cool to see on rides at Disney World, not something you thought would enhance your standard flick.  Besides the fact that movie tickets are at an all time high, 3D tickets are usually at least $2 more than a standard movie ticket.  this obviously helps out the box office numbers especially when 80% of US gross and 65% of overseas grosses are from 3D box office sales.

Social Media is no longer a gimmick and trend but an automatic strategy for a movie when it comes out.  It’s guaranteed that there will be online promotions for it.  To capitalize on the success of past movies with their online campaigns, Avatar hit the web in full stride and utilized multiple social media channels to promote the movie.  There was even a chat with James Cameron and some of the actors through Facebook, a live streaming video of the red caret event, and massive amounts of blog posts, contests, and tweets that were generated toward Avatar.  The build up worked like a science and when it went viral online it stuck because people have the ability to share things with others through links, multiple social networks, and good old fashion email that you can’t do with traditional advertising.

Even in 1999 with Titanic, the web was still a baby with social networking.  Things like Facebook and Twitter did not exists yet and blogs were in their infancy.  Imagine if Titanic came out now, or Star Wars?  The online promotion and buzz potential is endless and sci-fi movies seem to do a great job of establishing and building viral buzz online.  Maybe that’s because the geeks who are active on the internet (banterers included) are the main demographic who see these sci-fi movies to begin with.  There is no on reason but probably a combination of a few that will lead Avatar to surpassing Titanic to become the biggest movie of all time.

Do you think social media played a large role in Avatar’s sales or would it have been as successful prior to Facebook, Twitter, and social networking?