LEONARDO DICAPRIO,KATE WINSLETCharacte
(Picture: Handout)James Cameron’s film Titanic has become the third highest grossing movie of all time, following a 3D-release this year.
The veteran director is competing with himself, as his latest release, Avatar: The Way of Water, sits in the fourth spot, behind his 1997 classic by only a few million dollars between them.
Titanic currently sits at over $2.217 billion in box office earnings, compared with Avatar 2 on $2.214, however the current strength of the Avatar sequel at the box office means it will inevitably overtake the earlier movie for the third-place ranking on the all-time box office list.
Avatar: The Way of Water continued its success in the weekend box office, fighting off tough competition from Magic Mike’s Last Dance to claim the top spot, grossing $25.3 million in its ninth weekend of release.
The re-release of Titanic, to honour its 25th anniversary this weekend just gone, took in $22.3 million at the global box office.
The Hollywood Reporter said the new Avatar release would have taken the top spot this weekend had it not been for the re-release of Titanic.
“The Way of Water would have achieved the milestone over Super Bowl weekend had it not been for the rerelease of Cameron’s 1997 film Titanic, which grossed a tidy $22.3 million globally to up its total cume to $2.217 billion,” it said.
Cameron, 69, still has the highest grossing movie of all time under his belt, as his 2009 Avatar release sits at the top of the all-time box office, with $2.923 billion, followed by the Marvel film Avengers: End Game, which took $2.798 billion.
The feat makes Cameron the only director with more than three films to gross more than $2 billion in the box office. Other massive titles on the director’s stellar resume include 1984 blockbuster The Terminator, and 1986 film Aliens.
The success of The Way of Water has renewed expectation for the further instalments of the Avatar franchise. Cameron previously announced more movies for 2024, 2026 and 2028, adding that their release would depend on the success of Avatar’s second instalment.
Cameron said: “It looks like just with the momentum that the film has now, that will easily pass our breakeven in the next few days, actually, so it looks like I can’t wiggle out of this, I’m gonna have to do these other these other sequels.
“And I’m sure that we’ll have a discussion soon, you know, with the top folks that Disney about, you know, the game plan going forward for Avatar 3, which is already in the can, we’ve already captured and photographed the whole film. And then Avatar four and five are both written; we even have some of four in the can.
“So you know, I think we can see that that I think we’ve begun a franchise at this point.”
