James Cameron's Avatar continued its reign at the box office for the third week in a row. The film grossed $68.3 million domestically and surpassed the $1 billion mark worldwide, only the fifth film in history to do that.

Avatar has grossed $352.1 million domestically in only 17 days and has made $1.02 billion worldwide. 20th Century Fox distribution executive Bert Livingston attributed the continued strong showing to positive word-of-mouth and repeat viewers. Most blockbusters open big and then slowly die off in the coming weeks while Avatar's gross has been consistent from week to week.


"It's like a runaway freight train. It just keeps doing business," Livingston said. "Here's what's happening: I think everybody has to see 'Avatar' once. Even people who don't normally go to the movies, they've heard about it and are saying 'I have to see it.' Then there's those people seeing it multiple times."

Cameron's Titanic is the biggest worldwide blockbuster with grosses of $1.8 billion.
Coming in second for the weekend was Sherlock Holmes with $38.4 million, followed by Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel with $36.6 million. The Meryl Streep comedy, It's Complicated, came in at no. 4 with $18.7 million.

Hollywood set a record in 2009 with $10.7 billlion in ticket sales domestically.