'Avatar' blasts past $1 billion worldwide

"Avatar" started the new decade dominating the foreign circuit by grossing $136.8 million on the weekend -- down just 10% from the prior stanza -- from 13,784 screens in 109 markets.
 
Worldwide in just 21 days, director James Cameron's mega-budget epic has rolled up total boxoffice of $1.029 billion (comprising $676.9 million offshore and $352.1 million domestic).
 
Only five films in motion picture history have exceeded worldwide boxoffice of more than $1 billion, and "Avatar" now ranks at No. 4 on that all-time list.
 
Preceding it are Cameron's own 1997 smash "Titanic" ($1.843 billion) from 20th Century Fox, the distributor of "Avatar"; 2003's "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" ($1.119 billion) from New Line Cinema; and 2006's "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" ($1.066 billion), from Disney. Trailing "Avatar" is 2008's "The Dark Knight" ($1.001 billion), from Warner Bros.
 
"At the current pace of business," adds Fox, "Avatar" could claim the No. 2 all-time spot this week "even with school holidays ending in many markets."
 
Top "Avatar" territories overseas were France ($22.4 million on the weekend for a $85.6 million market cume), Germany ($11.2 million, cume $56.1 million), Spain ($9.9 million, cume $46.1 million) and the U.K. ($9.7 million, cume $53.3 million).