'Avatar' bound to rule US box office again

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With Golden Globe Awards for Best Picture, Drama and Best Director, Avatar is set to win at the US box office the weekend of January 22 for the sixth week in a row. It continues to break records, garnering the largest-ever box office receipts over the past three-day weekend in the US as well as beating records overseas.

Already reaching $1.6 billion, director James Cameron is ready to surpass his own all-time biggest blockbuster, catching up with Titanic's $1.84 billion global record.

The competition this weekend shows no clear-cut rival. Though Denzel Washington's Book of Eli came close last weekend, this weekend's apocalyptic action thriller, Legion, with Paul Bettany and Dennis Quaid, doesn't command the same star power, and should appeal to the horror-loving crowd.

The comedy Tooth Fairy will be a family favorite and might hold sway in taking the lead but it is unlikely to pull it out.

By next weekend's release of Mel Gibson's Edge of Darkness, its star attraction and action-thriller draw, combined with the natural decline of the Avatar audience, could finally see another film take the top spot again. But by that point, that news will focus on Avatar overtaking Titanic's title as biggest-grossing film in motion picture history.

RC