posted by: Sherwin Coelho Jan 27 2010 @ 8:45 pm

‘Avatar’ has eclipsed the 12-year record held by ‘Titanic’ to become the highest-grossing film of all time.

James Cameron, who has written, produced and directed both films, has proved his genius yet again. Needless to say, he will go down in history as one of the most successful movie-makers of all time.

As of Monday’s box-office figures, ‘Avatar‘ raked in $1.859 billion at the box office. This whopping figure is $16 million more than what ‘Titanic‘ brought in after its phenomenal reception in 1997. Both films were released during Christmas and it looks like Santa never denies Cameron his gifts of success and worldwide records.

The movie, which stars Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldanha, raced to the box-office financial record in just 39 days, while Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet’s ‘unsinkable’ love story took 41 days to reach a similar figure. However, a box office analyst has confirmed that 72% of ‘Avatar’s income has come from 3D revenues – where the price of the tickets were steeper.

Unlike ‘Titanic‘, which was about the ill-fated 1912 ocean liner that sank on its maiden voyage, ‘Avatar‘ was purely fictional as it took viewers to another planet with its spectacular state-of-the-art 3D visuals and motion capture technology, which Cameron helped perfect.

Probably the only film that can give ‘Avatar‘ a run for its money is its sequel, which was mentioned in passing by Cameron himself. It seems like he is keen to keep breaking his own records, or maybe he’s the only person talented enough to do so.

Titanic - Still ‘King’ at Oscars?

Disappointingly, ‘Avatar‘ walked away with just two awards - Best Picture and Best Director - at the recently-concluded Golden Globe Awards. It fared even worse at the Screen Actor’s Guild Awards. The nominations for the highly-coveted Oscar Awards will be revealed next week. Going by its recent award-letdown, ‘Titanic’s record of 11 Academy Awards does not look threatened.

Mount Avatar

‘Avatar‘ is not only leaving an indelible mark on the West, but in the East as well. Closer home, the Chinese were so besotted with the movie – after it shattered their national records – that they named a mountain after it.

Capitalizing on the 3D craze that Cameron wonderfully introduced to us, Warner Brothers has announced that its upcoming sequel of the final installment of the ‘Harry Potter‘ series will also be released in 3D. ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I‘ will release in November this year, while Part II will release in June 2011.