The film Avatar has overtaken Titanic to become the highest grossing of all time

It's official: Avatar is the highest-grossing movie ever, steaming past the worldwide box-office record of Titanic's $1.84 billion US on Monday, with tallies coming in at $1.86 billion. But the Oscar question remains: Can James Cameron's Avatar surpass his Titanic when the nominations are announced Feb. 2?

The answer is: No, Cameron won't be re-crowned king of that world.

In 1998, Titanic tied All About Eve's record with 14 nods, and ended up with 11 Academy Awards, equalling another record set by Ben-Hur (later joined by The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King).

But Avatar just doesn't have the nomination momentum to come close in 2010.

Cameron's Titanic picked up two acting nods for best actress (Kate Winslet) and supporting actress (Gloria Stuart), but the filmmaker's latest groundbreaking sci-fiadventure is expected to be shut out in the acting department.

While Sam Worthington is solid as the ex-Marine who volunteers to infiltrate the alien Na'vi planet as a look-a-like avatar, it's unlikely he'll pick up a best actor nod in a competitive category.

Sigourney Weaver earned a surprise best actress Oscar nod for her Ripley character in Cameron's Aliens, but her scientist in Avatar doesn't do much to warrant a supporting actress nomination.

And there's been a big Oscar push for Zoe Saldana, who plays the Na'vi princess. But the Academy isn't ready to nominate somebody for a digital portrayal, performance capture or otherwise.

Naturally, Cameron disagrees with the assessments, pointing out that the actors' extra effort focused on their talents, not their ability to cope with the special-effects demands and motion-capture procedures.

"Sam [Worthington] convinced me right away he could do the demanding job," notes Cameron.

"There's something steely and tough about him, but he showed that he had a great vulnerability and was able to bare his soul."

His friend, Weaver, gets just as much praise. "She was always there to give me what I wanted," he says. "She was trying to play the anti-Ripley. That was her idea and I think it worked out well."

Saldana, says Cameron, "was amazing in almost every way." But probably not amazing enough for Academy voters.

Avatar's also weak, where Titanic was strong, in the music, makeup and costume categories. In the end, that should give Avatar nine or 10 Oscar nods, mostly in the technical categories, but definitely a favourite in both best picture and director departments previously won by Titanic and "the king of the world."

Who can forget Cameron's reference on Oscar night? Cameron would like to. He regrets that Titanic acceptance speech for best director when he crowed, "I'm king of the world." It was a reference line from Leonardo DiCaprio's character in the film, but most took it as a brash boast.

It might affect his chances for best picture and best director, if it's close.

Yet Avatar has earned Cameron some of the best reviews of his career, while Titanic received a negative critical response when it was launched in 1997.

" Titanic was a target right from the start of production," recalls Cameron. "I was constantly defending it."

Meanwhile, there's one record Avatar earned with the help of inflation and ambition. Avatar became the most expensive movie ever made, at more than $300 million US. For its time, Cameron's Titanic was the record-holder at $200 million.

All's well that ends well at the box office, however, in any era.

And things couldn't be better for Avatar. In North America, Avatar as been No. 1 at the box office for six consecutive weeks.

Some have already called the Avatar narrative a copy of the both the classic Pocahontas story and the FernGully animated flick, with a dash of Kevin Costner's Dances With Wolves thrown in for good measure.

But Cameron says Avatar was inspired by turn-of-the-20th-century sci-fistories.

Indeed, he wrote the original Avatar treatment back in 1994, mostly inspired by Edgar Rice Burroughs's John Carter of Mars series.

And despite the groundbreaking special effects that were developed over the years, he continued using the straightforward story premise as his blueprint.

And it paid off, big time. "I have mainstream sensibilities," Cameron says.

"So I stayed with the mainstream approach."