Movies News

Fuelled by 3-D, Avatar second-highest grossing movie of all time

Jan 11, 2010, 19:52 GMT

Avatar is the story of an ex-Marine who finds himself thrust into hostilities on an alien planet filled with exotic life forms. As an Avatar, a human mind in an alien body, he finds himself torn between two worlds, in a desperate fight for his own survival and that of the indigenous people. More than ten years in the making, Avatar marks Cameron\'s return to feature directing since helming 1997\'s ...more

Los Angeles - The 3-D sci-fi movie Avatar has become the second-highest earning movie of all time after it grossed 191.5 million dollars at the global box office over the weekend, according to figures released Monday by 20th Century Fox.

The film has now taken in 1.34 billion dollars, some 460 million dollars shy of current record holder Titanic, which like Avatar was also directed by James Cameron.

The strong performance of the movie in its the first non-holiday weekend has increased expectations that the film could continue to attract enough audiences to pass Titanic, trade paper Variety reported. In addition to hordes of filmgoers eager to see what all the fuss is about, the film's protracted run is also being driven by sales of 3-D tickets, which are higher priced than regular tickets.

According to The Hollywood Reporter 64 per cent of ticket sales worldwide came from 3-D venues, while in the US 80 per cent of theatrical revenue for the film came from 3-D ticket sales.

Given the unprecedented nature of the film's ticket sales, movie executives are increasingly confident it can break the Titanic record.

'I believe anything is possible with this picture. Nothing would surprise me,' said Bert Livingston, a 20th Century Fox distribution executive.