Jan. 3 (Bloomberg) -- “Avatar,” the futuristic 3-D adventure, was the top film in the U.S. and Canada for the third straight weekend with $68.3 million in sales, and will cross the $1 billion mark in domestic and international receipts today.

The James Cameron film will have taken in an estimated $1.02 billion overall for News Corp.’s Twentieth Century Fox since its Dec. 18 release, according to Hollywood.com Box- Office. Time Warner Inc.’s “Sherlock Holmes” was second this weekend with $38.4 million, and Fox’s “Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel” was third with $36.6 million.

No major films were released this weekend, and the rankings matched last week’s, when the top three movies pushed annual U.S. ticket sales above $10 billion for the first time, according to Hollywood.com. Ticket sales in U.S. theaters rose an estimated 5.9 percent in 2009 to 1.42 billion, the most in five years, the Los Angeles-based researcher said. In the week between Christmas and Dec. 31, North American ticket sales set a record of about $500 million.

The attendance record came as the number of releases fell to 515 in 2009 from 2007’s high of 631, according to Jeff Bock, an analyst with Exhibitor Relations Inc. The average ticket price in 2009 was a record $7.46, up 4 percent from last year. Christmas weekend sales topped the previous record of $261 million in July 2008, when “The Dark Knight” was in theaters.

‘Sherlock Holmes’

The box-office gains helped make up for flagging DVD sales, which slid an estimated 10 percent in 2009, according to Adams Media Research. DVDs are Hollywood’s most profitable business, with studios collecting about 80 percent of each sale, according to Adams. The studios receive about half of each ticket sale.

“Avatar,” the story of an Earth-based corporation seeking rare minerals on a distant planet, surpassed the $250 million mark in 12 days, the fifth fastest on record, according to Box Office Guru LLC, a New York-based film researcher. “The Dark Knight” holds the record at eight days.

In “Avatar,” Sam Worthington plays an ex-Marine employed by a private army hired to subdue the planet’s inhabitants. He spies on the aliens by using a body cloned from their genetic material. The film’s $77 million opening weekend set a record for a 3-D movie in the U.S.

“Sherlock Holmes,” director Guy Richie’s adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle’s detective novels for Warner Bros., came in second for the second weekend. The film stars Robert Downey Jr. as Holmes and Jude Law as his aide, Dr. Watson. The film has taken in $140.7 million since its Christmas release.

Third place’s “Alvin and the Chipmunks” has benefited from attendance by children on their holiday breaks from school, according to Gitesh Pandya, editor of Box Office Guru.

--Editors: Rob Golum, Sylvia Wier