Are we on the precipice of Titanic WW grosses becoming commonplace (ish)?

[chasmmi]

From the 80s until the mid-late 90s, Domestic Box Office had one rule:   Films can break out, but the top two of all time will always be Star Wars and E.T.  

 

Then in the late 90s a couple of films finally went past these totals, but it was still an extreme rarity. However since 2015, there has been at least one film every year that has beaten Star Wars' total and it seems we are now at a point where the number one film of the year domestic will always outgross Star Wars.

 

The reasons for this are obvious: Ticket prices are higher. If we flip to the adjusted list, nobodyis coming close to Star Wars and E.T.

 

But here is my query. When will this be the case for Titanic (Avatar is still another level)? It took 30 years for E.T to be beaten on a yearly basis, and so by that timescale, Titanic still has about 10 years of being in the top 2-5 all time WW grosses. 

 

Looking at the all time records, it appears that the current trend for mega-hits is about $1.3B, which suggests that yearly $2B grossers are still a way away. But with China numbers getting sillier by the year, and Domestic seemingly set to offer 5-600M to a total instead of 3-400. Maybe the annual $2B film is closer than it seems?

 

(Futile disclaimer: This is not a comment on any films quality or whatever. Purely the fact that inflation/expansion etc means that box office will always be increasing). 

 

  

[Premium George]

I think same as E.T., another decade. Or even more since nothing is coming even close to $2 billion. But the way $1 billion suddenly became common in this decade, will still go with another decade when we will have a film each year reaching $2 billion. Same happen with E.t. With JP, it became more common for yearly topper to do that kind of business. 

[peludo]

China is the key. It has changed everything. It distorts any possible comparison with any 10 year old film and older ones. Without China, we would have 22 films over 1 billion, instead the current 33.

 

They will give us the first billion grosser in a single market. And it is a matter of time that HLW films can usually make the same or more in China than in USA.

[SLAM!]

They'll start becoming commonplace very soon. Inflation is on the rise by the year and the world market is growing extremely fast.

[Lordmandeep]

It is not that common since the Avengers 6 years ago only two films have surpassed this worldwide total.

[Kalo]

Couldn't Infinity War top 2b? I could see A4 topping it as well. It won't be common place for films to top 2b on a regular basis for a few years. but in 10 years - maybe even sooner yeah it is inevitable.