Source: Variety

James Cameron’s hugely-anticipated 3D sci-fi extravaganza Avatar finally opened in theatres this weekend and, as expected, it did huge business. It took $232.2 million worldwide; $159.2 million of that from overseas and a solid $73 million from US cinemas. This global take was the largest ever for a non-sequel, and the sixth biggest international launch ever. To put that into a Cameron-perspective, Titanic took just $28 million on its opening weekend, and went on to gross $1.8 billion internationally.

As impressive as those numbers were, some experts say the film could have taken even more across its opening weekend if adverse weather conditions had not slowed down the entire East Coast USA, not to mention several parts of Europe, and if cinema-goers were not distracted by last minute holiday shopping and Christmas parties.

Still, Twentieth Century Fox should be happy that Avatar has made back a huge percentage of its $280 million production budget in its opening weekend. Total costs - not including the massive marketing campaign - were around $310 million, but the studio received around $30 million in production tax credits.

And the popularity of Avatar also meant that the domestic weekend box office was up 51 percent over the same weekend last year.

UPDATE: Avatar did better than originally thought at the American box office, taking $77.3 million - instead of $73 million - to secure the biggest ever December debut at the domestic box office