Avatar set to sink Titanic record
Monday January 25 2010
James Cameron's Avatar is on course to sink Titanic at the box office.
Number 1 in the US for the sixth weekend in a row with 36 million dollars (£22.34 million), the 20th Century Fox sci-fi spectacle lifted its domestic total to 552.8 million dollars (£343 million), according to studio estimates.
Avatar raised its worldwide total to 1.841 billion (£1.143 billion). That is just 2 million dollars (£1.24 million) shy of first place behind Cameron's last movie, the 1997 shipwreck epic Titanic, at 1.843 billion dollars (£1.143 billion).
"It defies all superlatives," said Chris Aronson, head of distribution for Fox.
The studio said Avatar has hit 1.29 billion dollars (£800.45 million) in international ticket sales, passing the 1.24 billion dollar (£769,42 million) mark set by Titanic.
Avatar soared past The Dark Knight on Saturday to become the second highest grossing film in the US.
"We're witnessing box office history," said Paul Dergarabedian, box office analyst for Hollywood.com. "We're watching all of these big records fall, and there doesn't seem to be an end in sight. Avatar is dominating at a time where it has no big summer blockbusters to compete with it. It's perfectly poised to keep breaking all these records."
Avatar is also positioned to win acclaim during the awards season. While the computer-assisted performances did not earn any honours at Saturday's Screen Actors Guild Awards, it captured the best drama and director trophies at last week's Golden Globes and is considered a likely best-picture front runner when Oscar nominations are announced on February 2.
Press Association
