The figure more than doubled the $7.5M that I Am Legend grossed in its first Monday in December of 2007. That film still holds the opening weekend record for the month with $77.2M but reached a smaller $84.7M in its first four days.

Overall, Avatar surged to the third largest non-holiday Monday ever behind only The Dark Knight's $24.5M and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest's $18.1M. Both of those were in July on the fourth day of release immediately following an all-time record-breaking opening weekend. They were also in the summer when all students were out of school. On Avatar's Monday, a very large share of students had no class but some were still in school. Normally, Monday would need to be Memorial Day or some other major holiday in order to post a gross like this.

The Pandora extravaganza is already showing strong legs and could finish its first full week of release in the neighborhod of $125M. Tuesday and Wednesday should continue to show strength while the entire marketplace is expected to soften on Thursday as Christmas Eve is always a slower day with many theaters closing early. But Cameron will not be waiting up for Santa as his gift (and a big sigh of relief) came early.

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Check back on Wednesday for continued daily coverage of Avatar's opening week.