World of Movies

On January 25, 2010, Avatar became the world’s highest-grossing film of all time, surpassing the $1.843 billion record set by 1997’s Titanic. Six days later, its global tally reached the heretofore unthinkable $2 billion mark. This week, James Cameron’s big blue juggernaut has yet another milestone in its sights: Titanic’s domestic box office record of $600.8 million.

If all goes as expected, Avatar will claim the domestic box office crown sometime later today, in only its 47th day of release. By comparison, it took 286 days for Titanic, riding a slowly-cresting wave of repeated viewings by throngs of shrieking girls, to amass such a staggering sum.

To give you a sense of the remarkable swiftness with which Avatar ascended to the top of the box-office heap, I’ve put together the chart below comparing its daily earnings with those of Titanic through each film’s first 45 days of release. Though Avatar probably can't match Titanic's Ripkensian endurance, don’t be surprised if it remains competitive for many weeks to come, so long as moviegoers’ alternatives consist of such cinematic roadkill as When in Rome.