The Avatar onslaught continues with the film topping the US box office for a sixth week, adding another $36 million to its total, to take it to $552 million. That means it’s gone past The Dark Knight to become the second highest grossing movie of all time at the American box office.
However, while that’s pretty impressive on its own – and means the film is almost certain to become the top grossing film ever in the US by the end of its run – far more significant is that by the end of tomorrow, we will have a new highest grossing movie ever at the global box office. Avatar overtook Titanic as the biggest grossing movie ever at the non-US box office over the weekend, adding another $107 million to take it to $1.288 billion, just ahead of Titanic’s $1.242 billion.
Only a few weeks ago, it was thought that any film reaching Titanic’s levels was impossible, but as of today, Avatar’s global gross stands at $1.84 billion, just a few million shy of Titanic’s $1.842 billion. Cameron’s deep space movie will overtake Titanic tomorrow as the highest grossing movie ever worldwide, on a run that’s almost certain to make it the first $2 billion grossing film.
The gargantuan, ongoing success of Avatar meant new entry Legion had to settle for the number 2 spot on the US chart with $18.2 million. That’s normally a pretty good opening in January, but unfortunately rather pales in comparison to the all conquering Avatar.
The Dwayne Johnson family movie, The Tooth Fairy, opened at number four with $14.5 million, while Brendan Fraser and Harrison Ford’s medical drama, Extraordinary Measures had to settle for seventh place with $7 million.
However the only story anyone cares about is Avatar, and by the end of tomorrow, we’ll have to welcome it as the brand new biggest grossing movie ever. Take a look below for the full US Top 10 for the weekend of January 22nd-24th.
| Rank | Title | Weekend Gross (millions) | Total Gross to date (millions) |
| 1 | Avatar | $36.0 | $552.7 |
| 2 | Legion | $18.2 | $18.2 |
| 3 | The Book Of Eli | $17.0 | $62.0 |
| 4 | The Toothy Fairy | $14.5 | $14.5 |
| 5 | The Lovely Bones | $8.8 | $31.6 |
| 6 | Sherlock Holmes | $7.1 | $191.5 |
| 7 | Extraordinary Measure | $7.0 | $7.0 |
| 8 | Alvin and the Chipmunks 2: The Squeakuel | $6.5 | $204.2 |
| 9 | It’s Complicated | $6.1 | $98.6 |
| 10 | The Spy Next Door | $4.7 | $18.7 |