Avatar is now 2:nd on the worldwide Box Office list. James Cameron can now call himself King of the world AND universe.

Avatar also broke records when opening in China this Monday.

BEIJING (Hollywood Reporter) – Despite record snowfall and bitter cold, “Avatar” burned up China’s box office, earning about $5 million Monday to set a record for a weekday opening here, Twentieth Century Fox said.

The 22nd century sci-fi movie could be on its way to confirming China as the 21st century’s second-biggest territory for Hollywood blockbusters outside North America.

Although nearly a foot of snow blanketed China’s capital on Sunday and James Cameron’s $1 billion global box office hit didn’t premiere here until midnight that night, moviegoers still lined up in near-zero temperatures for half-price 40 yuan tickets ($5.85) and sold out the show at the Sanlitun Megabox theater.

“The theater was packed with people coming in freezing, bundled up in hats and coats and scarves,” a Megabox ticket seller said on Monday afternoon.

A Monday 4 p.m. show at the Megabox sold out of full-price 80 yuan ($11.71) tickets largely because the heaviest snowfall since 1951 closed Beijing offices and schools, extending the winter weekend.

“Avatar” enjoyed a nationwide cross-media promotion in China, including Cameron’s December 23 appearance in Beijing.

The director is well-known to Chinese for “Titanic,” which grossed $52.7 million here in 1998, a record that was only broken last July, by “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.” The “Transformers” sequel earned 400 million yuan $59 million, making China its No. 2 territory outside North America. “2012″ eclipsed that mark last month, earning $67 million.

Weng Li, spokesman for state-run distributor China Film Group Corp, told news portal Sina.com on Monday that “Avatar” would “create a boxoffice record of 500 million yuan easily.” That’s a projected $73 million, of which Fox will be allowed by Chinese law to keep roughly 15%, or $11 million.

China’s boxoffice is still small compared with North America’s Government data showed revenue rose from 920 million yuan in 2003 to 4.3 billion yuan ($630 million) in 2008, when China had about 4,000 screens, a number expected to reach 6,000 by 2011. By comparison, in the U.S. in 2008, movies grossed $9.8 billion on roughly 40,000 screens.

Related posts

• Avatar tops Box Office for SIXTH consecutive weekend (4)
• Avatar tops Box Office for fourth consecutive weekend (0)
• Avatar tops Box Office for fifth straight weekend (7)
• Time to hit the movies (0)
• Spoiler alert: New Avatar trailer in bad quality (1)

• Previous Entry: Avatar breaks Box Office records
• Next Entry: Avatar sequel is coming