That article might be exagerating a bit, films released around that time rarely are front-loaded, their advantage lies in usualy staying strong at the box office for weeks to months, as there's not much competition. As cool as that could be, i doubt it will get close to Avatar, that was the kind of hit that only comes out now and then, as it gave people a completely new and unique experience. Avatar was also a brand new property, nobody had watched it before and you had to do so in order to form your opinion, it was pretty much an event, Star Wars however, is a big franchise that pretty much everyone has an opinion on, and not all of it is going to be positive.
Star Wars has a rabid fanbase that will watch the movies multiple times, but while it's arguably one of the most popular film series ever, there are still some who could care less. Don't tell me you don't know anyone who dislikes the series, i know a few people who even refuse to give the teasers and trailers a try. Avatar and Titanic on the other hand were those sort of event films you had to see in order to talk about, there wasn't any fully formed opinion yet and that ended up being an advantage.
That said, Force Awakens does have a fair chance at surpassing Titanic, that film was released almost 20 years ago and latest releases are getting closer to surpassing it's original run.
My money's on Force Awakens making 1.7- 2 billion, if it's realy good and everything's gearing towards it's favor, it might even reach Titanic's present gross. But from what i hear, December is going to be a month when China doesn't get other films besides their oun, so how much SW does there might be affected.
Anyway, Force Awakens is going to break an opening record for December, but considering how that month usualy has lower opening than summer, i do fear some headlines like "The New Star Wars falls short of the predictions" due to how high some of the predictions are right now. Exagerated expectations are what i think might end up creating some bad buzz, it was wise of Disney to say they were keeping their box office expectations low.
