Figures...

“…Avatar is turning out to be the biggest film in the history of cinema, and the concept visual effects by Weta Digital will be even more renowned throughout the film-making world as a result.”

(SPADA media release, 26 Jan 2010.)

In purely numerical dollar terms, yes, Avatar is the highest-grossing film of all time, as producers, distributors and other industry lobbyists keep telling us.

But it undermines the credibility of all involved when it is revealed that if inflation over 71 years is taken into account, Avatar turns out to be merely 54th on the all-time money list! Not only that, but attendance numbers of 200 million for the top film, Gone With The Wind, still greatly exceed those who’ve seen Avatar – so far, anyway.

Then, to play with figures a little more, along with monetary inflation there’s the three-fold increase in world population (and therefore potential audience) between 1939 and 2010 to take into account!

By all means trumpet one’s success – but please don’t insult people with ignorant use of, or deliberate manipulation of, statistics!