14 DAY TRIAL // For the fourth consecutive week, “Avatar” has remained at the top spot of the US box office, bringing in yet another $48.5 million in ticket sales, for a total of over $1.3 billion internationally since release. The film has officially become the second biggest selling production ever released, second only to yet another Cameron film, “Titanic,” the Guardian informs.
Industry watchers predicted that “Avatar” would come to take second place in terms of overall grossing ever in the industry as early as late last week. However, pulling in yet another $50 million domestically was a feat even they did not expect to see this week. This, in turn, only comes to speak volumes for the appeal Cameron’s latest flick has with wide audiences, both in the US and the other territories were it’s now running.
“Fox’s ‘Avatar’ became the first movie since ‘The Dark Knight’ two summers ago to hold on to No 1 at the North American charts for four consecutive weekends. It did so in convincing fashion, grossing an estimated $48.5m (£30m) to boost its running total to $429m (£266m) and place James Cameron’s space opera at No 7 in North America’s all-time box-office pantheon. ‘Avatar’ is going great guns overseas, too, where a further $143m in ticket sales saw it easily hold on to the international crown for the fourth weekend in a row and raise its score to $906.2m. That places it second behind ‘Titanic’ in the all-time overseas chart and second in the global hall of fame when you combine the international and North American tallies,” the Guardian writes.
Right now, “Avatar” is in the running for the number one spot at the international box office, a feat that seems double given the pace set by the film in its first 20 days, at the end of which it had already crossed the $1 billion threshold, the same publication goes on to say. Given the cost of 3D tickets and the fact that fans are still queuing (literally) for a chance to see it, all signs would point to “Avatar” taking down “Titanic” in the next couple of weeks or so, it is further being said.
“At the international box office, it certainly has the pace to overtake the boat story’s $1.242bn total, but can it pull in enough to push past Titanic’s $1.842bn combined all-time score? To do so it would need to gross a further $400m or so overseas to add to the $100m that is still possible from North America – after all, Fox top brass expect it to overtake The Dark Knight’s $533.3m to become the second biggest domestic release. So in conclusion – maybe, but that’s not to take anything away from an incredible piece of visual film-making backed by a formidable marketing effort from the studio,” the Guardian adds.