AVATAR IS KILLING'EM! MAKES OVER $300 MILLION DOMESTICALLY & IT'S CLOSE TO $800 MILLION WORLDWIDE!

The sci-fi blockbuster "Avatar" is heading into a rarified box office stratosphere, having crossed the $300 million mark domestically on New Year's Eve - after just 15 days in release.
While exact box office numbers overseas won't be available until Sunday, Variety estimated the global haul at close to $800 million.

"Avatar" is steaming along faster than James Cameron's last movie, 1997's "Titanic," which took 44 days to cross the $300 threshold domestically - on its course of an all-time box office record of $800 million.

"This is amazing. There were a lot of naysayers in the beginning," says Paul Degarabedian, box office analyst for Hollywood.com. "How this film would do was a big question mark."

While critics say the numbers are inflated by the hefty prices to see it on 3-D IMAX screens, audiences are still digging into their wallets in large numbers.

Degarabedian says the box office haul shows that modern, jaded audiences are treating this as a visual milestone comparable to the way their parents once flocked to "Star Wars."

"What it has done and what it is doing, is it is creating a buzz that's mainly based on the amazing 3-D visuals," says Degarabedian. "It's just going to keep rolling and rolling along."