The weekend results are ine...WOW...wimply...WOW...

Okay, Avatar has just accomplished something no major release has ever don't before...the movie delivered a second week result, nearly identical to the first one. This $75 estimate is mind boggling on Avatar getting to it...The movie is looking like a lock for $400 million Domestic, and $1 billion Worldwide.

1 1 Avatar Fox $75,000,000 -2.6% 3,456 +4 $21,701 $212,268,000 - 2
2 N Sherlock Holmes WB $65,380,000 - 3,626 - $18,031 $65,380,000 - 1
3 N Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel Fox $50,200,000 - 3,700 - $13,568 $77,051,000 - 1
4 N It's Complicated Uni. $22,114,000 - 2,887 - $7,660 $22,114,000 - 1

The field was crowded, but their were no bombs, and Fox really cleaned up with Avatar and Chipmunks.

I'd say it was mildly amusing for those 'in the know' and just another bit of jargon for everyone else, much like the technobabble of Star Wars and Star Trek.

Perhaps even more impressive is the strength of the international appeal of the film.  It's showing over $ 600 Million after just over 1 week of release (2 weekends of course) and is seeing more than 60% of it's business outside US.

I guess given the themes this might not be a surprise, but it points to huge success for the film.

Traditionally, the really big performing films have to earn much more outside US to really hit the big numbers, and Avatar looks well on track for that kind of split.

I shudder to think how far it might go in the end. How disgusting would it be if James Cameron was the one to take the revenue title away from James Cameron?

I was like MEH at the begginig but it's a must watch...

It's too early to say if this movie is going to overtake Titantic, as that might be a far stretch, but I think 2nd place is definitely in play at this point.

LOTR: ROTK - $1.119 Bln
POTC:DMC - $1.067bln
TDK - $1.001bln

With the massive international take, and split as mentioned by Reasonable, and the riddiculous drop this past week, the movie is going to have some amazing legs to rival Titanic. Looking at the month of Jan 10, there is nothing on the horizon, except maybe Book of Eli to take the #1 spot. So it looks like Avatar 2 in 2012...

wow it only fell 2%, this will be big

I just got back from seeing this film.

By far the best CGI ever created. Amazing.

This is probably the most amazing feat this film will accomplish...that is UNREAL...I've been watching Box Office takes for a LONG time, and I've never seen anything like that before.  Movies with large opening weekends just don't do that kinda stuff.  This means the wom of phenomenal for the film.

I think the 3D and the CGI is so good Avatar has become a 'must see and judge for yourself' film.  Friends of mine who would never see a film like Avatar are taking themselves off to see it to see 'what the fuss is all about'.  While I've critised it's story, etc. as have most critics, the simple fact is that, obvious weaknesses aside, the film is pure cinema visually.  It's loaded with what we find, as a visually biased species, fascinating about sitting in the dark watching films on a very big screen.

What's going to be interesting is how this changes things for 3D.  The film industry want's to get us all back in cinema's to see 3D films rather than watching at home, and if Avatar is as big as success as the drop indicates I think we're really going to see the studios really push for more big, visually impressive 3D films.

Amazing drop, of course - unless Avatar drops big time by next weekend it's going to sail past 1 billion fairly quickly.  It should be noted though, just 'cause it's a fair point, that a large percentage of its sales are from Imax or higher priced 3D showings (I've seen it in Imax and at a higher price showning in a regular cinema) so the large numbers reflect a slightly smaller audience than they otherwise would do, but clearly hoards of people are seeing it nonetheless.