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David Mumpower: How old does Harrison Ford look in this movie? If they shot Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade today, Sean Connery would play Ford's son instead of vice versa. At this point, the only role in which he'd be believable is as the shuffling undead.

Jason Lee: This film looked to be about as much fun as listening to Susan Boyle's debut album.

Abadah!

Kim Hollis: Avatar passed The Dark Knight on its way to becoming the second film to earn $550 million domestically. It will soon become the most successful film of all time in terms of both domestic and worldwide box office. We had a similar conversation when The Dark Knight came out about films that could beat it with regards to opening weekend. Are there any films on the horizon that you believe could have an Avatar-like performance?

Tom Macy: Negative. Not on the horizon, anyway. But as to whether a film could surpass Avatar's eventual total I say yes. Before Avatar, I thought that Titanic was insurmountable due to the frontloading shift in movie going patterns we've seen over the past decade. Now I see that if a film truly provides audiences with an experience they don't feel they can have anywhere but in the theater they'll come out, at any price, often more than once. With 3D and IMAX business booming and still in their relative infancy and directors like Chris Nolan and Michael Bay experimenting with shooting on the 65mm IMAX cameras there's still lots of room for growth. I believe that the potential for a movie going event in the next five-to-seven years that surpasses Avatar in terms of being a transporting new experience for audiences is not out of the question.





Josh Spiegel: Presuming, of course, that you mean a performance of $600 million or more, a couple of the sequels coming out in 2010 could hit big, such as Iron Man 2 or Toy Story 3. I find it hard to believe that a non-sequel that doesn't have the advantage, as Avatar did, of 3-D and major hype could ever hit these heights. And, when it comes to the legs Avatar has, it's a once-in-a-decade situation. Avatar is a far more unique movie than Titanic was, as it's not going to be in theaters as long as the epic ship romance, it's got 3-D, and it's managed to act like a blockbuster, and not like a blockbuster. Frankly, we may have to wait another 12 years, or until ticket prices go past 10 dollars everywhere.

Reagen Sulewski: Don't overlook Percy Jackson!

In all seriousness, I think it will take some adaptation of a popular series to surpass it. Think "Twlight, but good." Nothing in 2010 looks particularly plausible, but Captain America or The Avengers movie might be something to keep an eye on. Failing that, we just have to wait for someone to reinvent cinema again.

Shalimar Sahota: Probably not an Avatar-like performance (which looks like it might be the first film to cross $2 billion worldwide), but with films that are likely to have a worldwide gross of a billion, I think something like The Hobbit could do it. Also, taking into account 3D movies with their inflated ticket prices, Pixar's Toy Story 3 is also a possibility.

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