'Avatar' passes $500 million at U.S. box office

'Avatar' passes $500 million at U.S. box office


LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Newly crowned Golden Globe winner "Avatar" broke the $500 million mark in record time at the North American box office on Monday, quickly closing in on the all-time record held by "Titanic" for 12 years.

Distributor 20th Century Fox said James Cameron's sci-fi spectacular earned an estimated $54.6 million during the four-day U.S. Martin Luther King holiday, leading the box office for a fifth consecutive weekend.

Its total rose to $505.1 million after 32 days. The Batman sequel "The Dark Knight" held the $500 million speed record, taking 45 days in 2008.

The News Corp -owned studio expects "Avatar" to surpass the $533 million haul of "The Dark Knight" next weekend, leaving only Cameron's "Titanic" ahead of it with $601 million. Data are not adjusted for inflation, and "Avatar" additionally benefits from premium pricing for 3-D screenings.

The international total for "Avatar" rose to $1.12 billion after a $129 million weekend. The worldwide total stands at $1.613 billion, trailing "Titanic" by just $230 million.

"Avatar" won Golden Globes on Sunday for best drama and director. All eyes are now on the Feb. 2 announcement of the Academy Award nominations.

"BOOK OF ELI" OPENS AT NO. 2

Denzel Washington's "The Book of Eli" opened at No. 2 in North America with $38.0 million for the four-day period, the actor's second-best opening after the three-day $43 million launch of 2007's "American Gangster." Young men accounted for about two-thirds of the audience for the Christian-themed apocalyptic thriller, said distributor Warner Bros. Pictures.

The $80 million film was produced by FedEx Corp Chairman Fred Smith's Alcon Prods., and distributed for a fee by Warner Bros., a unit of Time Warner Inc.

Director Peter Jackson's adaptation of "The Lovely Bones" took the No. 3 spot with $20.5 million in its first weekend of national release, as the "Twilight" crowd flocked to the supernatural murder story.

Avatar becomes fastest film to hit $1 bn mark

James Cameron's science-fiction epic Avatar had another stellar weekend with $68.3 million domestically, shooting past $1 billion worldwide, only the fifth movie ever to hit that mark.

No 1 for the third-straight weekend, 20th Century Fox's Avatar raised its domestic total to $352.1 million after just 17 days. The film added $133 million overseas to lift its international haul to $670 million, for a worldwide gross of $1.02 billion.

Avatar opened two weekends earlier with $77 million, a strong start but far below dozens of other blockbusters that debuted as high as $158 million. But business for other blockbusters usually tumbles in following weekends, while Avatar revenues barely dropped over the busy Christmas and New Year's weekends.

"It's like a runaway freight train. It just keeps doing business," said Fox distribution executive Bert Livingston.

"Here's what's happening: I think everybody has to see Avatar once. Even people who don't normally go to the movies, they've heard about it and are saying, 'I have to see it.' Then there's those people seeing it multiple times."

Avatar was Cameron's first film since 1997's Titanic, the biggest modern blockbuster with $1.8 billion worldwide.

Cameron now is the only filmmaker to direct two movies that have topped $1 billion. Along with Titanic, the others are The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King at $1.13 billion, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest at $1.06 billion and The Dark Knight at a fraction over $1 billion, according to box-office tracker Hollywood.com.

Meet the real stars behind the masks

Playing someone else is a challenge. At the same time, not being able to show your true self is a tricky and ironical prospect for an actor yet to establish himself as a known face.

And so despite playing some of the best known characters with a popular fan-following in record-breaking money spinners, performers go virtually unrecognised simply because of the make-up, prosthetics or masks associated with their iconic look.

Currently it's impossible to identify leading man Sam Worthington's original face while he plays Jake Sully, the courageous central protagonist of filmmaker James Cameron's insanely-anticipated and favorably-reviewed $230 million 3D treat, Avatar.

On that note, here's a look at the real deal behind actors who have essayed masked or partially concealed fictional characters on celluloid.


Image: Left: Sam Worthington. Right: As Jake Sully in Avatar
Photographs: Luke MacGregor/Reuters