Although Wednesday’s box office figures haven’t been officially announced yet, sources at Fox let Deadline Hollywood know that by the end of yesterday, Avatar would almost certainly have become the second highest grossing movie of all time, overtaking the $1.119 billion that Lord Of The Rings: The Return of The King made in 2003.
As of Tuesday, Avatar’s take was $1.098 billion, with Wednesday’s gross expected to take it past ROTK’s level.
Perhaps most impressive is that it did this in only 20 days. The four films that had previously hit the billion dollar mark – ROTK, The Dark Knight, Pirates Of The Carribbean: Dead Man’s Chest and Titanic – took months to hit that level, and Cameron has managed to do it in less than three weeks!
Of course it means that the director now holds both the first and second spots on global all-time box office chart, a feat that hasn’t been achieved since Spielberg hit the 1-2 with Jurassic Park and ET in the early 90s.
The next question, of course, is whether Avatar can keep going and overtake Titanic’s truly gargantuan box office take. While adding another $725 million to its gross to get to that level is a big ask, with Avatar having an almost unprecendented and unusual box office run, it’s currently impossible tell when the film’s final gross might end up. In fact I wouldn’t now be shocked if in a few weeks I do have to write that Avatar has overtaken Titanic’s $1.842 billion and become the highest grossing movie ever.