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"Avatar" climbed to $601.1 million domestically on Tuesday, putting it a fraction ahead of the $600.8 million haul for "Titanic."

Yes, it did speed past The Dark Knight's $533.3 million as the 2nd highest grossing film of all time at the domestic box office. And right now, based on my sources' numbers for Saturday and estimates for Sunday, Avatar's cume after this weekend is $552 million -- just shy of the No. 1 biggest grossing domestic film ever Titanic's $600.8M.

I think the word we're looking for is... "WOW!" James Cameron's Avatar earned yet another $19 million domestically on Monday, its 11th day in theaters, which is almost $3 million more than last Monday, when it earned $16.38 million. The $19 million marks the 7th biggest Monday of all-time and it pushes the film's domestic total to $232 million.

In Hollywood's biggest-ever box-office weekend, "Avatar" held the top spot while earning only slightly less during its second week of release. According to studio estimates Sunday, James Cameron's 3-D epic earned $75 million for 20th Century Fox, only a 3 percent drop from its opening weekend total of $77.4 million. "Sherlock Holmes" followed close behind with $65.4 million, including a record Christmas Day debut of $24.9 million. "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel" took in $50.2 million.

Warner Bros.' period action pic "Sherlock Holmes" raked in $24.9 million yesterday, notching the best Christmas day opening ever at the domestic box office. Undeterred by the onslaught of another tentpole in the marketplace, Fox’s "Avatar" dipped 12%, taking $23.5 million off 3,456.

Film boxoffices were poised on Wednesday to eclipse 2007's record $9.68 billion in U.S. and Canadian ticket sales with Hollywood eyeing more than $10 billion this year as audiences flocked to theaters during the recession.

Studio execs should give plenty of thanks to female moviegoers: "Twilight: New Moon" and "The Blind Side" led the best-ever Thanksgiving weekend at the box office by drawing women and families into theaters, while male-centric newcomers "Old Dogs" and "Ninja Assassin" only earned so-so numbers.

Summit Entertainment's sequel "New Moon" has set box office history in breaking all records for midnight runs, grossing a whopping $26.3 million as it unspooled in 3,514 theaters at 12:01 a.m. Friday.

Summit Entertainment is now saying it debuted to $72.7 million from 4,024 North American theaters. This shatters both previous All-Time Friday and Single Day records of $67 million set by 2008's The Dark Knight.

The specialty box office roared to life as Lionsgate's "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire" opened to $1.8 million from 18 locations for a record-breaking $100,000 per location average.