As if all these feats weren't impressive enough, there's a cherry on top of this sundae. The movie had a final multiplier (total domestic box office divided by opening weekend gross) of 20.98. If The Dark Knight performed in a similar fashion, it would earn $3.323 billion domestically. You read that correctly, a $3.323 billion domestic gross.

But wait, we can blow your mind even more than that. If X-Files: I Want to Believe showed that sort of staying power, it would earn $210.3 million. Still not impressed? If Meet Dave, one of the dregs of summer, had a 20.98 final multiplier, it would be a $100 million performer with roughly $10.2 million to spare. Of course, this is approximately a factor of 8 more than it will actually earn, but it effectively demonstrates how a final multiplier of just under 21 can make even the worst of opening weekends grow into a stunning box office performance. All the film needs is a bunch of weekends in a row that surpass its opening weekend total. No problem in 2008, right?





While studios have unsuccessfully tried to duplicate the story/genre formula (i.e. Pearl Harbor), until The Dark Knight, no one has even threatened Star Wars' second place total of $461 million, let alone approach the $500 million mark. Despite your disdain, love or apathy toward the film, Titanic was convergence of all the right elements to put it through the stratosphere and that has to be respected and marveled at despite your feelings about the man or the movie. Titanic might just be the most aptly titled film in history.

So, will any film ever challenge Cameron's tenure at the top? That's impossible to predict but not altogether impossible to achieve. It might be the final Harry Potter film or it could be some unknown project that takes the world by storm. Until that time, Titanic will sit on its pedestal waiting and enjoying the view.

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