Avatar Lords Over Rings, Now No. 2 All Time

James Cameron now has the top two highest-grossing movies in history as sci-fi flick continues massive haul

By Josh Grossberg Jan 08, 2010 5:25 PMTags
Sam Worthington, Avatar20th Century Fox

Looks like James Cameron is the King of Middle Earth, too.

With $1.14 billion worldwide and counting, Avatar has now overtaken the $1.1 billion raked in by 2003's The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King to become the second-highest-grossing film in history.

In fact, Avatar is going so strong that what once seemed an out-of-this-world impossibility now seems within the realm of (virtual) reality. If the 20th Century Fox movie, which screens in both 2-D and 3-D formats, keeps up its current pace, it could catch the $1.8 billion in global ticket sales tallied by the Oscar-winning filmmaker's own Titanic.

It that wasn't enough (and it never is in Tinseltown), Fox's FX cable network has reportedly paid upward of $25 million for the TV rights to Avatar, which will premiere in 2012.

And that makes Cameron's blue folk even more green.

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Get all the scoop on Avatar's shot at Oscar's top prize here.