James Cameron's Avatar, Avatar | featured news

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Science-fiction adventure "Avatar" and war movie "The Hurt Locker" on Tuesday earned nine Oscar nominations each, including best movie, to lead the field in the competition for the world's highest film honors.

"Avatar" grossed yet another strong $30 million over the weekend for a new domestic total of $594.4 million. That stunningly puts James Cameron's blockbuster only days away from passing "Titanic's" U.S. mark of $600 million. "Edge of Darkness" found a solid $17.1 million and "When in Rome" $`12.1 million.

Now that 20th Century Fox's Avatar is the highest grossing movie of all time (not adjusted for inflation or higher 3D ticket prices), it should pass $2 billion worldwide by early next week (its global total was $1,917,419,460 last Thursday). The pic's runaway success has answered all its critics, so there's not much more to say except, Wow!

James Cameron's "Avatar" is on a course to sink "Titanic" at the box office. No. 1 for the sixth-straight weekend with $36 million, the 20th Century Fox sci-fi spectacle lifted its domestic total to $552.8 million, according to studio estimates Sunday. "Avatar" raised its worldwide total to $1.841 billion. That's $2 million shy of first place behind Cameron's last movie, the 1997 shipwreck epic "Titanic," at $1.843 billion.

Yes, it did speed past The Dark Knight's $533.3 million as the 2nd highest grossing film of all time at the domestic box office. And right now, based on my sources' numbers for Saturday and estimates for Sunday, Avatar's cume after this weekend is $552 million -- just shy of the No. 1 biggest grossing domestic film ever Titanic's $600.8M.

The science-fiction blockbuster "Avatar" won best drama at the Golden Globes and picked up the directing honor for James Cameron on Sunday, raising the "Titanic" filmmaker's prospects for another Academy Awards triumph.

James Cameron's "Avatar" has shot past "Star Wars" to become the No. 3 movie on the all-time domestic box office charts. Next stop: "The Dark Knight."

FRIDAY PM/SATURDAY PM: Alcon Entertainment's Book of Eli has become the 1st movie to be #1 after the 28-day reign of Avatar. Sources tell me the Denzel Washington starrer distributed by Warner Bros with a we-be-cool marketing campaign made $12 million Friday from 3,111 theaters. That probably adds up to $35M for the 4-day long weekend -- exactly what the studio expected after weeks of really strong tracking and crossover appeal. Once again, the spotlight is back on Alcon's Princeton duo funded by FedEx boss Fred Smith whose daughter Molly brought the guys The Blind Side.

Continuing its reign atop the boxoffice, Fox's "Avatar" easily held on to the No. 1 spot Friday as it entered its fourth weekend, earning another $13.3 million.

Whether or not you enjoyed "Avatar," you have to admit that James Cameron knows what he's doing. He is the only filmmaker to have two separate movies cross the $1 billion worldwide threshold, and as of this week, both "Titanic" and now "Avatar" are the number one and two highest grossing movies of all time.