James Cameron’s unstoppable Avatar is entering its fifth weekend with more dominant ticket sales. Fandango tells us that 80% of its ticket sales for Avatar have been for the 3D and IMAX screenings and for the fifth weekend, 73% of its advanced ticket sales are for Avatar, followed by The Book of Eli with 7% and The Lovely Bones with 5%.
Worldwide, the film has earned $1.42 billion and has just passed up Shrek 2‘s $441.2 million to climb to the fourth spot on the all-time domestic list with $445.7 million. It only trails Star Wars ($460.9 million), The Dark Knight ($533.3 million) and Titanic ($600.8 million) now.
In sequel news, James Cameron told Entertainment Weekly that he was even planning a sequel during production. “I’ve had a storyline in mind from the start – there are even scenes in ‘Avatar’ that I kept in because they lead to the sequel,” Cameron said. “It just makes sense to think of it as a two or three film arc, in terms of the business plan. The CG plants and trees and creatures and the musculo-skeletal rigging of the main characters ? that all takes an enormous amount of time to create. It’d be a waste not to use it again.”
