Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana in their digital Na'vi characters in a scene from 'Avatar.' (Courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox)

Despite the seemingly unbeatable record “Titanic” has set, there’s just no stopping the ringing of the box office register in favor of the sci-fi spectacular “Avatar” to overtake the maritime melodrama in the record books.

With both movies directed by James Cameron, “Avatar” has now amassed a whopping $1.859 billion sales, trumping the $1.843 billion haul racked up by "Titanic" in 1997-1998 by a few million dollars. That in itself is a stunning feat considering that world is still feeling the effects of a near economic meltdown, unemployment, and some highly destructive natural disasters.

The massive sales figures of “Avatar,” it will also be noted, comes from higher ticket prices of its 3D screening, and the fact that ticket prices have obviously risen over the past decade. In this sense, it is amazing that “Titanic” held its record for so long since it debuted in theaters in 1997.

As for sales adjusted for inflation, only the sales in North America (US and Canada) have been tallied and revealed, most notably on www.boxofficemojo.com, listing the top three to be: “Gone With the Wind” (released in 1939, with over 200 million estimated tickets sold, with adjusted sales gross of $1.455 billion); “Star Wars” (1977; over 178 million tickets sold; adjusted gross of $1.282 billion); and “The Sound of Music” (1965; over 143 million estimated tickets; $1.025 billion adjust gross).

In this list, “Titanic” is on number six and “Avatar” does not make the Top 10.

But until global adjusted rates are calculated and released for all movies, for all time, for now the unofficial unadjusted top five global highest-grossing films of all time are:

1. “Avatar” (Twentieth Century Fox / $1.859 billion)

2. “Titanic” (Twentieth Century Fox / $1.843 billion)

3. “Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” (New Line Cinema / $1.119 billion),

4. “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest” (Disney / $1.066 billion)

5. “The Dark Knight” (Warner Bros./ $1.001 billion)