HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — James Cameron’s sci-fi epic Avatar won the weekend box office for the third straight week, according to studio estimates released Sunday.
The picture easily outdistanced the competition with $68.3 million in sales. It also raised its worldwide gross after just 17 days to $1.02 billion, a mark that only five movies in history have achieved. In doing so, Cameron became the only filmmaker to top that mark twice after first striking gold with Titanic.
The other films who have topped the $1 billion mark are The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest and The Dark Knight.
The top five movies maintained the same order as last weekend, with Robert Downey Jr.’s Sherlock Holmes ($38.4 million) finishing second, followed by Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel ($36.6 million), It’s Complicated ($18.7 million) and The Blind Side ($12.7 million), respectively.
Weekend Box Office
1. Avatar, $68.3 million
2. Sherlock Holmes, $38.4 million
3. Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, $36.6 million
4. It’s Complicated, $18.7 million
5. The Blind Side, $12.7 million
6. Up in the Air, $11.4 million
7. The Princess and the Frog, $10 million
8. Did You Hear About the Morgans?, $5.2 million
9. Nine, $4.3 million
10. Invictus, $4.1 million
