Top Story –
Avatar becomes the fastest movie ever to achieve $1bn (£625.6m) in ticket sales around the world according to 20th Century Fox and it’s done it in just 17 days. Apparently it is the most expensive film ever made. The film Lord of the Rings – The Return of The King was the highest grossing film in the last decade only making $1.12bn in total.
Avatar Poster (copyright 20th Century Fox)
Top Video –
Monogrenade: Ce soir from Monogrenade on Vimeo.
Top List –
Highest-grossing films of 2009 in the United States
| Rank | Title | Studio | Worldwide gross |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Avatar | Fox | $2,749,064,328[2] |
| 2. | Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince | Warner Bros. | $934,416,487 |
| 3. | Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs | Fox / Blue Sky | $886,686,817 |
| 4. | Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen | Paramount / DreamWorks | $836,303,693 |
| 5. | 2012 | Columbia | $769,304,749 |
| 6. | Up | Disney / Pixar | $731,342,744 |
| 7. | The Twilight Saga: New Moon | Summit | $709,827,462 |
| 8. | Sherlock Holmes | Warner Bros. | $524,028,679 |
| 9. | Angels & Demons | Columbia / Imagine | $485,930,816 |
| 10. | The Hangover | Warner Bros. / Legendary | $467,483,912 |
Source: “2009 Worldwide Grosses”. Box Office Mojo.
Top News –
- Armed conflicts and attacks
- American media report that the attacker who killed eight people at a CIA base in Afghanistan was a Jordanian triple agent. (MSNBC) (AFP)
- A gunman opens fire in the lobby of the Lloyd D. George Federal District Courthouse in Las Vegas, Nevada, containing the offices of Senators Harry Reid and John Ensign. A court security officer was killed and a U.S. Marshal injured before the assailant was shot dead. (NY Daily News) (KRSO)
- Arts and culture
- The Burj Khalifa, the tallest structure ever built, opens to the public in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. (Al Jazeera) (WAM Emirates News Agency)
- A representation of President of the United States Barack Obama is found hanging by a noose with the epitaph “Plains, Georgia. Home of Jimmy Carter, our 39th President”. (BBC)
- Disasters and accidents
- At least 500 homes are damaged after a 7.2 magnitude earthquake hits the Solomon Islands. (AFP) (Washington Post)
- Large parts of northern China and South Korea are affected by the heaviest snowfall in 60 years, causing widespread disruption. (People’s Daily) (BBC) (Korea Times)
- Met Éireann says Ireland is experiencing its most extreme cold spell of weather since 1963. (RTÉ)
- Discoveries
- Egyptian archaeologists discover the largest tomb yet discovered in the ancient Saqqara necropolis. (Discovery News)(AFP) (Xinhua)
- Environment
- A diesel fuel leak in Shaanxi, China reaches the Yellow River, a water source for millions of people. (China.org.cn)(Reuters)
- International relations
- The Government of Serbia sues Croatia for genocide before the International Court of Justice with historical account of the Holocaust. (B92) (BusinessWeek)
- Law and crime
- 52 unmarried couples in Malaysia face charges of sexual misconduct and possible imprisonment after being caught alone in hotel rooms by the country’s Islamic morality police. (BBC)(Las Vegas Sun)
- Police search for a mystery man who goes missing after sparking a security alert at Newark Liberty International Airportin the United States, causing the airport to be completely locked down. (BBC) (The Sydney Morning Herald)
- Politics and elections
- Johan Ferrier, first President of Suriname and the world’s oldest living former head of state, dies in the Netherlands at the age of 99. (Radio Netherlands Worldwide) (Winnipeg Free Press)
- South African President Jacob Zuma marries his fifth and currently third wife. (Times LIVE) (Reuters) (BBC)
- Burmese military junta leader General Than Shwe urges people to make the “correct choices” in elections later this year.(Bernama) (BBC)
- Science and technology
- NASA‘s Kepler telescope detects its first five exoplanets. (BBC) (National Geographic) (New Scientist)
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