In its third week since debuting at number one, Avatar has soared past the billion dollar mark worldwide and continues to hold its number one spot over rivals Sherlock Holmes. Not surprisingly there were no big releases this week (if any), leaving the third spot for Alvin and the Chipmunks: the Squeakquel.
Avatar took in $68.3 million this weekend, a drop of only 9.7% from last week, a phenomenal effort three weeks into a run. Sherlock Holmes was less lucky taking in a respectable $38 million, dropping 38.5% in its second week of screening. Alvin and the Chipmunks managed a close $36.6 million dropping 25%.
With a whopping $1.02 billion under its belt, Avatar takes the fourth spot on the worldwide grossing chart, blasting past the Dark Knight and leaving all the Harry Potters’, Spider-man’s and all but one of the Lord of the Rings movies in its wake.
Ahead of it is Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest at number 3, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King at 2 and, you guessed it, James Cameron’s other massive hit, Titanic at number one with $1.8 billion. That being said, Avatar has only had 3 weekends to soar past the billion dollar mark, whereas Titanic was in theatres for 41 weekends. Guess we’ll have to wait and see what happens, huh?