Avatar Still Holds Box Office Record $2.8 Billion

Avatar, James Cameron’s 2009 mega hit, continues to hold the record for total global box office at $2.778 billion worldwide. Its U.S. ticket sales were $721 million, according to Box Office Mojo. The numbers are so extremely high that the new Starwars movie, “Starwars: The Force Awakens”, may not catch Avatar

“Starwars: The Force Awakens” has posted extraordinary numbers, but as is true with all movies, they will begin to taper off. Its sales so far have reached $890 million worldwide, with $440 million of that in the U.S.

Box Office Mojo researchers have tried to predict the pattern of sales for the new film:

Once again Star Wars: The Force Awakens is poised to break even more box office records over Christmas weekend. However, after five days of record-breaking activity it’s this holiday season’s new wide, expanding and limited releases that could prove equally interesting. Four new films are releasing in 2,800+ theaters this weekend with Daddy’s Home the widest release of the lot at 3,271 theaters. Looking back over the years this has been a prime weekend for new releases, begging the question as to whether Star Wars steals eyeballs or if it simply does its thing while the other titles play as they normally would.

Box Office Mojo tried to gauge the rate at which the new movie will chase Cameron’s:

Star Wars will most certainly take the weekend top spot with a second weekend well above $100 million. We’ve been tracking it’s daily performance in comparison to Avatar as its 33.8% Monday drop matched that of the domestic and worldwide box office champ. Tuesday’s 6.85% drop was a little higher than Avatar’s 1.83% drop, but Wednesday got things back on track with a 1.7% increase compared to Avatar’s 2.23% increase on its first Wednesday, which keeps the comparison alive heading into the weekend.

The result of the competition will not be in for months. In the meantime, Cameron can rest assured the his movie may keep the top spot for the near term future