'Avatar' beats 'Titanic' as worldwide box office leader

James Cameron really is King of the World; the 55-year old director is now the proud papa of the top two highest-grossing movies ever. Twentieth Century Fox announced today that Avatar has crossed Titanic’s worldwide box office gross of $1.843 billion on Monday and now holds the global box office record of $1.859 billion. Most of the credit for the film’s success has to be given to its phenomenal performance in 3-D, which accounts for 80% of the film’s domestic box-office gross. Avatar still needs another $45 million to cross Titanic’s domestic gross of $600 million, a feat that will be achieved in the next two weeks. It’s rather amazing that Titanic held its record for so long considering ticket prices have obviously risen since the film debuted in 1997 and grosses are not adjusted for inflation. Don’t expect Avatar to drop off anytime soon. With the film falling only 20% every weekend, its likely to remain in theaters for many weeks to come.

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