‘Avatar’ opens to $232 million worldwide

We’ll keep this brief, but numbers like these are rare and worth noting. Nikki Finke says that in spite of the snowstorms in the North East, Avatar passes The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King to become the 2nd biggest December opening ever, with a $73 mil domestic haul. (I Am Legend remains in first place with $77 mil.)

“Can’t wait for the East Coast snow to clear,” one upbeat Fox exec tells me about studio hopes for the tentpole to have legs because of “the tremendous word of mouth.”