‘Avatar’ Tops Global Box Office Record

There are two key numbers dancing around in News Corp executives’ heads today: $1.859 billion, and 39. The former is the amount “Avatar” has brought in globally at the box office, and the latter is the amount of days it took to get there. And James Cameron’s baby isn’t done growing its trust fund just yet.

Cameron’s latest pic officially eclipsed his previous one, “Titanic,” according to a release from Fox today. “Titanic” took twice as long to reach the current high-water mark (sorry). News Corp execs now expect “Avatar” to top out over $2 billion worldwide with the Oscar push coming next week, following the nominations on Tuesday.

For some perspective, here are the top five grossing movies of all time, courtesy of BoxOfficeMojo.com:

Rank Title Studio Worldwide Domestic / % Overseas / % Year
1 Avatar Fox $1,858.9 $555.0 / 29.9% $1,303.9 / 70.1% 2009
2 Titanic Par. $1,843.2 $600.8 / 32.6% $1,242.4 / 67.4% 1997
3 The Lord of the
Rings: The Return of
the King
NL $1,119.1 $377.0 / 33.7% $742.1 / 66.3% 2003
4 Pirates of the
Caribbean: Dead Man’s
Chest
BV $1,066.2 $423.3 / 39.7% $642.9 / 60.3% 2006
5 The Dark Knight WB $1,001.9 $533.3 / 53.2% $468.6 / 46.8% 2008