Amid Avatar: The Way of Water’s unabated blockbuster box office performance, a Bollywood movie is breaking records. Pathaan, India superstar Shah Rukh Khan’s comeback film, cracked North America’s top five and is being touted as probably the biggest Bollywood bow ever in the domestic market.

Worldwide, the action-drama-thriller of Khan, who is called King of Bollywood and Badshah of Bollywood, is setting opening records for an Indian film. Pathaan, his first movie in four years, is being reported as having the best IMAX opening for an Indian film after grossing $2.5 million.

The movie about an Indian spy who takes on a gang of mercenaries, directed by Siddharth Anand, collected $61.3 million worldwide. With a cast that includes Deepika Padukone, John Abraham and Dimple Kapadia, Pathaan is also smashing records in the United Kingdom.

In the Pandora world, as predicted, James Cameron’s Avatar sequel did indeed take the crown as the fourth biggest worldwide hit ever, on the strength of $2.117 billion global revenues. But Avatar 2 is poised to overtake Cameron’s own Titanic as the number three next week.

On its seventh weekend, the Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana-led sequel is still unstoppable, generating $42.4 million overseas. It’s officially the biggest-selling movie ever in France, and is the number one studio release of all time in several countries, including South Korea and India.

Avatar 2’s offshore cume is $1.49 billion, with turnstile sales still going strong in, aside from Korea and India – China, Mexico, France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Australia, and the United Kingdom.

In China alone, The Way of Water has already racked up total ticket sales of $237.1 million so far and is the second highest-grossing movie of 2022. The Spring Festival period in the world’s biggest movie market also boosted the grosses of homegrown releases, headed by Yimou Zhang’s Full River Red ($383 million), Frant Gwo’s The Wandering Earth II ($377 million) and Yongchang Lin and Heqi Shao’s Boonie Bears: Guardian Code ($136.3 million).

Internationally, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish is also holding well and has eclipsed the original film in earnings. Gaining $14.3 million in almost 80 territories over the weekend, Puss in Boots 2 has now earned $193.3 million offshore.

M3GAN, part of the trio of films that’s keeping the January box office out of the usual doldrums, has collected $63.8 million in over 70 territories. Worldwide cume for the AI doll-powered horror flick is $146 million.

In the domestic charts, three newcomers did not fare as well as Pathaan but they made it to the top ten. Left Behind: Rise of the Antichrist, the sixth feature based on the “Left Behind” novel series, debuted in eighth place. Starring Kevin Sorbo who also directs, the so-called rapture film drew $2.97 million.

Alexander Skarsgård and Mia Goth’s science fiction horror film, Infinity Pool, opened in ninth. The film directed by Brandon Cronenberg (David Cronenberg’s son), set in a resort where a perverse subculture and surreal horrors reign, scraped up $2.72 million.

China’s sci-fi hit back home, The Wandering Earth II bowed in tenth place in the United States and Canada. The tale about a race to find a new planet home as the sun is set to engulf the Earth in 100 years picked up $1.355 million.

Making up the rest of the magic ten were, in order: Avatar: The Way of Water, $15.7 million; Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, $10.6 million; Tom Hanks’ A Man Called Otto, $6.75 million; M3GAN, $6.37 million; Pathaan, $5.95 million; Missing, $5.675 million; and Gerard Butler’s Plane, $3.8 million.