The ambitious and highly anticipated 3D blockbuster Avatar scored $232.2 million in its first weekend opening globally in 106 countries making it the highest grossing global non-sequel release ever with some industry experts estimating that the film could eventually hit over $1 billion in ticket sales globally. As a comparison, James Cameron’s Titanic grossed $1.6 billion globally.

 

In the U.S., Avatar grossed an estimated $73 million which made it the second-best December debut behind “I Am Legend.” While on the lower end of expectations for the U.S., much of the Eastern U.S. was buried under snow in near blizzard conditions as local television stations warned people to stay in. Audiences were noticeably lower in affected cities such as Washington D.C., Philadelphia and Baltimore. The foreign box office totaled $159.2 million with the top foreign countries being Russia with $21 million, France with $19 million and the U.K. with $14.2 million. The movie has not opened yet in two big Asian markets, Japan and China so its global box office could go up considerably.

 

Avatar was also the best 3D movie opening ever as exhibitors had been racing around the clock to get new 3D screens installed in time for the movie’s release. 3D screens represented 59% of the total screens showing the movie but accounted for 71% of the gross with 3,124 total 3D screens including 178 IMAX 3D screens.

 

It will remain to be seen if the movie can recover the purported $300 million it cost to produce the film not including marketing dollars which was estimated to be an additional $150 million. Holiday action films typically reach three times their opening weekend figure and considering the hype, positive reviews and online buzz, Avatar should easily surpass those totals. Word of mouth had been strong leading up to the film’s release with over 4.7 million views of the film’s online trailers so far, according to Variety, and unlike typical blockbusters, critics had been mostly positive with an average critic rating of A- according to Yahoo! Movies as well as an A rating from users. Every demographic who watched the movie also gave the movie an average rating of A, according to market research firm CinemaScore, which interviewed moviegoers after they had watched the flick. Studios typically receive about half of a film’s domestic take and 40% of its international take.