LOS ANGELES, (Reuters) – “Avatar” ventured further into rarefied territory at the worldwide box office during the weekend, surpassing the $2 billion mark days after it broke the record held by “Titanic.”
James Cameron’s 3-D sci-fi spectacular has grossed $2.039 billion after seven chart-topping weekends of release, distributor 20th Century Fox said on Sunday.
The film last Monday smashed the $1.843 billion record set in 1998 by the filmmaker’s “Titanic.”
The News Corp.-owned studio declined to forecast where the film would end up, since it expected tomorrow morning’s Oscar nominations to spur a new wave of interest.
It did predict that “Avatar” would break “Titanic’s” North American record of $601 million by Wednesday. The film moved to $594.5 million after a $30 million weekend in the United States and Canada.
The foreign total stands at $1.45 billion after a $95 million weekend from 120 countries. It remained No. 1 in many of them, including France (sales to date: $134 million), China ($126 million), Australia ($84 million) and Brazil ($43 million).
