The true test of how far James Cameron’s Avatar would go at the box office was the first Monday where people went back to work and kids were back in school – and it looks like the film held up quite well.
The box office juggernaut earned yet another $8.1 million domestically on Monday to push its North American total to $360.2 million. That means Avatar has surpassed Jurassic Park ($357.1 million) for 14th place on the all-time domestic chart. It will next be eyeing The Passion of The Christ, which earned $370.8 million.
The big question is whether the film will be able to pass up The Dark Knight‘s $533.3 million to become the second highest-grossing film domestically of all time, trailing just Cameron’s own Titanic ($600.8 million).
Worldwide, we think its safe to assume now that the movie will surpass both Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest ($1.07 billion) and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King ($1.12 billion) to become the second-biggest movie of all time globally behind Titanic‘s $1.84 billion. As of Sunday, Avatar was at $1.03 billion worldwide.
UPDATE: The foreign total stands at $706.4 million and worldwide total has reached $1.07 million after just eighteen days of release.
