It just keeps on going. James Cameron's science fiction epic Avatar has now passed the billion dollar mark worldwide, after only three weeks of release. The film now lies in fourth place on the highest grossing films of all time, and is expected to finish second, behind Titanic, but ahead of The Return of the King, The Dark Knight and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.
This passing weekend, Avatar broke the record for a third weekend gross, taking $68 million; the closest film to it is 2002's Spiderman, which had a third weekend haul of $45 million. Cameron had spoken about the possibility of a trilogy of films in the Avatar series if the first one made enough money, and by the looks of it we will be seeing a sequel at some stage.
Elsewhere, Sherlock Holmes was also continuing to do extremely well, grossing a further $38.5 million, to take its total to an impressive $145 million and counting. Alvin and the Chipmunks 2 has been wowing the kiddies with a weekend gross of $36.6 million, to take its cume to $152 million. Meanwhile, the brilliant George Clooney starrer Up In The Air continued to slowly expand its theatre count, pulling in a an early sum of $45 million. With awards recognition for 'Air' continuing into the New Year, it should be a certainty for, at least, the $100 million mark.
