Avatar is now officially the 2nd largest grossing movie in the history of cinema:
1. Titanic $1,842,879,955
2. Avatar $1,137,846,909
3. Return of the King $1,119,110,941
4. Dead Man's Chest $1,066,179,725
5. The Dark Knight $1,001,921,825
(now I don't understand why this chart is so important to movie critics when it only represents a tiny fraction of all ticket sales)
1 Titanic Par. $600,788,188 1997
2 The Dark Knight WB $533,345,358 2008
3 Star Wars Fox $460,998,007 1977^
4 Shrek 2 DW $441,226,247 2004
5 E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial Uni. $435,110,554 1982^
6 Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace Fox $431,088,301 1999
7 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest BV $423,315,812 2006
8 Spider-Man Sony $403,706,375 2002
9 Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen P/DW $402,111,870 2009
10 Avatar Fox $380,540,297 2009
11 Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith Fox $380,270,577 2005
12 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King NL $377,027,325 2003
13 Spider-Man 2 Sony $373,585,825 2004
14 The Passion of the Christ NM $370,782,930 2004^
15 Jurassic Park Uni. $357,067,947 1993
16 The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers NL $341,786,758 2002
Is the mighty worldwide "Avatar" box office performance directly tied to its readability as an anti-American, anti-military (yet happily militaristic in its entertainment value), anti-colonialist tract? Charles Mudede of Seattle's alt weekly the Stranger, put it this way: "The American culture industry exports an anti-American spectacle to an anti-American world and makes a killing ... it's really all about American power and its decline. According to this movie, America is over and done with — the thrill is gone, the glory can not be restored."
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