"Avatar" Breaks "Titanic" Worldwide Record

It is official - James Cameron's "Avatar" is biggest movie of all-time surpassing Cameron's "Titanic" in worldwide box office ticket sales.

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In terms of international sales alone (excluding domestic sales), "Avatar" already took the #1 spot over the weekend with $1.29billion to "Titanic's" $1.24billion. This past weekend, I reported that "Avatar" was only $2million (I mistakenly wrote $6m) away from surpassing "Titanic" in worldwide sales and that it will achieve the feat by Monday since on any weekday "Avatar" grosses more than that.

20th Century Fox, the studio behind the film, reported that the $2million gap was overcome by Monday morning. Although "Avatar" is now the worldwide box office champ, it still has one more record to claim: domestic box office. The psychologically satisfying record and true benchmark of “Avatar’s” success - the one record everyone is looking at - is whether it will surpass “Titanic” to become the #1 movie in the North American market. "Avatar's" has grossed thus far $552million to "Titanic's" $600.8m.

Given's "Avatar" strong continuation at the box office - its week-by-week drop in ticket sales is incredibly impressive by industry standards - it will no doubt soon be able to claim that record. And "Avatar's" reach to half-a-billion was incredibly faster than "Titanic's".

"Avatar's" award success thus far and possible Oscar nominations (and wins) will add to its box office intake as more audiences feel compelled to see the film - which has benefited greatly from word of mouth promotion.

What does this all mean? Cameron has long stated that he envisions "Avatar" as the first part in a trilogy and the film's ending leaves great room for story continuation and expansion. With the current box office gross and critical reception, "Avatar" 2 and 3 will not be far behind.

As I wrote previously, a few caveats: First, ticket prices in general are more expensive today than in the late 1990s and greatly boost “Avatar’s” sales and the film has the advantage of driving much, if not most, of its audience to buy even more expensive 3D/Imax tickets. In tickets sold, “Avatar” claims more than 60million next to “Titanic’s” 120million in the United States. It is unlike that Cameron will top his previous ticket sales, which saw people attending multiple screenings of “Titanic”. Second, there is more of an international audience now. In the last +10 years since Titanic, hundreds of millions of people around the world have joined the global middle class and can now afford such luxuries as movie tickets. And, thirdly and most importantly, inflation. Accounting for inflation, “Titanic’s” domestic/international sales would be $2.4billion - “Avatar” is unlikely to surpass that but many expect it to be the first $2billion film.