The 20th Century Fox film studio has said James Cameron's sci-fi spectacle Avatar passed his shipwreck saga Titanic to become the highest-grossing film worldwide.

As of Monday, Avatar had brought in 1.859 billion US dollars (£1.146 billion) at the box office, passing the 1.843 billion US dollars (£1.142 billion) worldwide record set by 1997's Titanic.

Titanic remained the highest-grossing film in the US at 600.8 million US dollars (£372 million).

Avatar has been number one at the box office for six straight weeks with a domestic total of 554.9 million US dollars (£344 million).

Avatar has also mined 1.3 billion US dollars (£805 million) in international ticket sales, smashing the 1.24 billion US dollars (£768 million) mark previously set by Titanic.

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