'Avatar' set to sink 'Titanic' record

James Cameron’s 'Avatar' is on a course to sink 'Titanic' at the box office.

No 1 in the US for the sixth weekend in a row with €36m (€25.4m), the 20th Century Fox sci-fi spectacle lifted its domestic total to $552.8m(€391m), according to studio estimates today.

'Avatar' raised its worldwide total to $1.841bn (€1.3bn)). That is just $2m shy of first place behind Cameron’s last movie, the 1997 shipwreck epic 'Titanic', at $1.843bn.

“It defies all superlatives,” said Chris Aronson, head of distribution for Fox.

The studio said 'Avatar' has hit $1.29bn (€900m) in international ticket sales, passing the $1.24bn mark set by Titanic.

Avatar soared past 'The Dark Knight' on Saturday to become the second highest grossing film in the US.

“We’re witnessing box office history,” said Paul Dergarabedian, box office analyst for Hollywood.com. “We’re watching all of these big records fall, and there doesn’t seem to be an end in sight. 'Avatar' is dominating at a time where it has no big summer blockbusters to compete with it. It’s perfectly poised to keep breaking all these records.”

'Avatar' is also positioned to win acclaim during the awards season. While the computer-assisted performances did not earn any honours at Saturday’s Screen Actors Guild Awards, it captured the best drama and director trophies at last week’s Golden Globes and is considered a likely best-picture front runner when Oscar nominations are announced on February 2.