After hauling in $529 million worldwide during its opening weekend—the highest ever—Star Wars: The Force Awakens continues to shatter box office records. This week, the movie is expected to surpass Avatar as the highest-grossing movie at the box office in North America.

Over the weekend, The Force Awakens tallied $83 million in ticket sales domestically, making it the highest third-weekend ever for a movie, according to Entertainment Weekly. The movie's now reached $740.3 million domestically, topping Jurassic World's $652.3 million and Titanic's $658.7 million. When adjusted for inflation, The Force Awakens is now the second-highest grossing domestic movie ever. It's expected to earn the top spot in just a few days when it overtakes Avatar's $760.5 million.

Once The Force Awakens achieves this milestone, it will mark the first time in 18 years that a James Cameron film has not sat atop the list of highest-grossing domestic films, according to CBS News. Cameron directed both Titanic and Avatar.

Globally, the latest Star Wars installment has earned $1.5 billion, making it the sixth highest-grossing movie worldwide—and the movie hasn't even opened in China yet. It's quickly marching up the list and is expected to top Furious 7, The Avengers: Age of Ultron and Jurassic World soon. Once it opens in China this weekend, The Force Awakens will be well on its way to catching Titanic and Avatar, which are No. 2 and No. 1, respectively.

The movie's biggest coup, however, could come next month, when the Academy Awards are held. Buzz is building that The Force Awakens could earn Oscar nominations in multiple categories, including Best Picture. "The Force Awakens has instantly become a serious awards player, massive. It's the most fascinating Oscar wild-card," Tom O'Neil, editor of the awards website Goldderby.com, told USA Today.  "It could come up with the most nominations of any film, including best picture. And there's a chance it could win, if the Oscar force is with this movie."

Oscar nominations will be announced 14 January; the telecast airs on ABC on 28 February.

This article originally appeared on esquire.com.

From: Esquire UK