James Cameron’s latest film tops $1.8 billion internationally

Jan 26, 2010 15:47 GMT  ·  By
“Avatar” tops “Titanic” at international box office, surpassing $1.8 billion in ticket sales
   “Avatar” tops “Titanic” at international box office, surpassing $1.8 billion in ticket sales

In the battle between James Cameron against James Cameron for the title of the biggest selling movie of all times, James Cameron came out as the winner. “Avatar,” released just 6 weeks ago, has just topped “Titanic” in the race for the biggest movie in history, having surpassed $1.8 billion at the international box office and setting a new world record, CBS News informs.

“‘Avatar’ has surpassed ‘Titanic’ at the box office, topping $1.8 billion worldwide. ‘To get to those numbers,’ says Hollywood.com’s Paul Dergarabedian, ‘you need repeat business, you need great word-of-mouth, and you need to grab an audience basically across the board.’ ‘Avatar,’ observes CBS News Correspondent Ben Tracy, has made director James Cameron king of the world again. He out-did his ‘Titanic’ success by creating an entirely new world for moviegoers, combining state-of-the art 3D visual effects with old-fashioned romance,” CBS News writes.

Though word of this feat got out in the media yesterday, when box office numbers were released to the media, clearly showing that “Avatar” was just $7 million behind “Titanic,” it’s still surprising to see James Cameron take down his own record. The director can now honestly say he just got “promoted” from king of the world to king of the universe, which is what he was after in the first place, as he said a while ago, in one of his older interviews.

As we also noted yesterday, the irony of all this is few analysts and industry insiders were actually willing to give Cameron the benefit of the doubt before “Avatar” hit theaters worldwide. No matter how much the director, cast and studio bosses argued to the contrary, there was almost no chance of turning a profit from it when it had a budget estimated anywhere around $300 and $500 million. There was also the issue of the hype the film generated prior to its release, with many believing the film would not live up to it.

“Avatar” has now officially silenced naysayers by shattering all records – even more, it’s showing no signs of losing stream anytime soon, so expect more impressive numbers like these.