On Thursday The Avengers passed the $400 million mark and, as promised some time ago, here are the top 10 fastest films to reach that number at the box office in North America, unadjusted for inflation.

Did you know The Avengers is only the 10th film to ever reach $400 million (in a single box office run)? So if you think about it for a second, this is the not just the top 10 fastest to $400 million, it’s the entire damn list. Now for those wondering, The Hunger Games sits at $388.5 million after 56 days and should pass $390 million by the end of the weekend. There is still a good chance that Katniss Everdeen will eventually make her way to $400 million.

10. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009) – It took 74 days for this mess to reach $400.1 million, finishing with $402.1 million.

9. Star Wars: Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace (1999) – Only the 2nd film to ever pass the mark in a single theatrical run, The Phantom Menace needed 67 days to make $401.4 million, stopping at $431 million.

8. Spider-Man (2002) – Taking 66 days to reach $400 million, arguably one of the most popular superheroes of all time, Spider-Man ended its run with $403.7 million. This year’s reboot of the series, The Amazing Spider-Man, can only dream of such heights. But crazy things can happen, just look at The Avengers.

7. Titanic (1997) – The highest grossing film of all time for 12 years, Titanic hit $402.5 million in 66 days, closing its initial theatrical run with $600.7 million. Thanks to a 3D re-release back in April this year, the film now sits at $658.4 million.

6. Toy Story 3 (2010) – This animated masterpiece made it to $400 million in 58 days, running out of juice at $415 million.

5. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (2006) – Johnny Depp, pirates, Jerry Bruckheimer, Legolas, Keira Knightley, and a huge Kraken were just some of the ingredients of this Disney blockbuster. It needed 45 days to reach $401.2 million and the film ran out of booty to plunder at $423.3 million.

4. Shrek 2 (2004) – While not exactly on the same level as Toy Story 3 quality-wise, it made a lot of money, and still the highest grossing animated film of all time. This one took 43 days to gross $400.9 million, totalling $441.2 million in the end.

3. Avatar (2009) – This little film made $415 million in 23 days and didn’t stop until $749.7 million during its initial run. Now Avatar, the current highest grossing film of all time (unadjusted for inflation), has made $760.5 million, a number you won’t see beaten for quite some time.

2. The Dark Knight (2008) – While Avatar made the most green, this film is the undisputed king of reaching milestones in record time. Unfortunately that statement is no longer true because there is a new champion in town. Regardless, The Dark Knight made $400 million in 18 days and with a total of $533.3 million it is still the #1 highest grossing superhero film of all time in North America, at least for two more weeks or so.

1. The Avengers (2012) – After an opening weekend of $207.4 million, this film was bound to break more than a few records during its box office run. So it was fastest to $100 million, $200 million, $300 million, and now $400 million in just 14 days. Right now not even the sky seems to be the limit for this superhero juggernaut, ready to win yet another weekend.

With more and more movies making epic amounts of money extremely fast, reaching $400 million is not as hard as it once was and there are definitely a few contenders on the horizon. No matter how you look at it, The Dark Knight Rises will make a lot money, very much guaranteed a top 5 on the chart above. Then there’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Avatar 2 (2015), Avengers 2 (?) which are all very likely to end up on this list in the years to come.

So besides The Avengers, what other film you see making over $500 million next?

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Last month we heard that due to various factors we were unlikely to see Avatar 2 in 2014 as originally intended, but producer Jon Landau said work has already begun with WETA on the underwater performance-capture, so the ball is now rolling.

In a recent interview director James Cameron said Avatar 2 and 3 will be his main focus from now on, and he doesn’t intend to develop other projects on the side. Cameron also hinted that we may even see an Avatar 4.

From The New York Times:

I’ve divided my time over the last 16 years over deep ocean exploration and filmmaking. I’ve made two movies in 16 years, and I’ve done eight expeditions. Last year I basically completely disbanded my production company’s development arm. So I’m not interested in developing anything. I’m in the “Avatar” business. Period. That’s it. I’m making “Avatar 2,” “Avatar 3,” maybe “Avatar 4,” and I’m not going to produce other people’s movies for them. I’m not interested in taking scripts.

That all sounds I suppose a little bit restricted, but the point is I think within the “Avatar” landscape I can say everything I need to say that I think needs to be said, in terms of the state of the world and what I think we need to be doing about it. And doing it in an entertaining way. And anything I can’t say in that area, I want to say through documentaries, which I’m continuing.

Cameron also gave an update on where the sequels are in terms of development:

We’ve spent the last year and a half on software development and pipeline development. The virtual production methodology was extremely prototypical on the first film. As then, no one had ever done it before and we didn’t even know for two and half years into it and $100 million into it if it was going to work. So we just wanted to make our lives a whole lot easier so that we can spend a little more of our brainpower on creativity. It was a very, very uphill battle on the first film. So we’ve been mostly working on the tool set, the production pipeline, setting up the new stages in Los Angeles, setting up the new visual effects pipeline in New Zealand, that sort of thing. And, by the way, writing. We haven’t gotten to the design stage yet. That’ll be the next.

Nothing solid is known about the storylines for the sequels, but Cameron has previously revealed he would be “focusing on the oceans on Pandora, which will be equally rich and diverse and crazy and imaginative” as the rain forest environment we saw in the first film. This will require underwater performance-capture which has never been done before, so it’s no surprise that we’ll have to wait until 2015 and beyond to return to Pandora. One positive aspect is that they will be shooting the films back-to-back, so we probably won’t have to wait as long between movies.

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Back in January Avatar producer Jon Landau said “it will be four or so years” before we can expect to see the sequel, and in a new interview Landau said that while work on Avatar 2 is already under-way, it’s unlikely to hit its original December 2014 release date.

From Empire:

“We’re not naming dates, but I think 2014 will be a tough date for us to make. It’s about getting it right. Movies make release dates; release dates don’t make movies”.

“We’ve started already, WETA are already working and we have our core team, (animation supervisor) Richie Baneham and (digital effects supervisor) Nolan Murtha, working with us. And we’re working on underwater performance-capture. It’s going to be like the Floating Mountains in the first movie,” explains the producer. “It’s not going to be all underwater; it’s going to be a place we go to, leave and come back to.”

Sam Worthington has previously said that James Cameron still hasn’t got a complete script and he’s trying to “push the boundaries” in regards to the technology, which could be one of the reasons for the delay. Despite having to wait 4+ years the sequels will be shot back-to-back so whenever the second film hits, the third won’t be far off.

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20th Century Fox had originally given Avatar 2 a December 2014 release date with Avatar 3 hitting a year later in December 2015, however while speaking at a screening of Titanic 3D producer Jon Landau said “it will be four or so years” before the second film will be released.

Assuming he’s got his numbers right, that means James Cameron and the team are now aiming for either December 2015, or 2016. In order to have hit the original 2014 release filming would have had to begin sometime this year, but in a recent interview Sam Worthington said Cameron still hasn’t got a complete script and he’s trying to “push the boundaries” in regards to the technology, which could be one of the reasons for the delay.

Cameron has previously revealed the sequels to Avatar would be “focusing on the oceans on Pandora, which will be equally rich and diverse and crazy and imaginative” as the rain forest environment we saw in the first film. This will require some underwater performance-capture, which has never been done before. Cameron is also planning to shoot at 60 frames per second which, again, has never been done before on a feature film.

The sequels will be shot back-to-back so whenever the second film hits, the third won’t be far off.

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Last year James Cameron said the sequels to Avatar would be “focusing on the oceans on Pandora, which will be equally rich and diverse and crazy and imaginative” as the rain forest environment we saw in the first film.

While exploring the depths of Pandora will prove a technical and visual challenge (performance-capture underwater, for example), it will give Cameron the opportunity to slip in some environmental issues causing concern here on Earth.

Cameron recently spoke to ABC’s Nightline about the ocean issues which will be present in the sequel, and you can watch the interview using the player below:

I didn’t mind Cameron’s environmental themes in the first film as it’s welcoming to see a popular movie with a message, but at the same time it’s good to know he won’t be overbearing with the environmental issues in the sequels, admitting that “it has to be entertainment first and foremost.”

Avatar 2 has a release date of December 2014 and Avatar 3 will hit a year later in December 2015. Back-to-back filming of the sequels will begin sometime next year.

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Despite the box office success of Avatar the sales of Avatar: The Game weren’t that impressive. It wasn’t a flop, selling over 2.7 million copies, but it didn’t meet expectations, which some blame on Ubisoft’s decision to release it 2 weeks ahead of the movie (before the hype).

With Avatar 2 and 3 set for 2014 and 2015 Ubisoft will have another chance to make an Avatar game, and director James Cameron thinks the universe is “perfect” for an MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online Game).

From IGN:

I think Avatar is a perfect IP for an MMO. It’s a very, very big world and based on the first film, you might not sense that, but we’re talking about an entire planet, an entire alter world, and in fact a universe that has other planetary bodies, as well, and other cultures, other life forms. Eventually people will see enough scope to be able to see how the MMO will work, but that’s going to have to be launched…the timing of that is going to have to be carefully orchestrated with the release of the second and third film because we don’t want to be giving away elements before the fact. And also I think one of the cool things about an MMORPG is that you have to have a lot more possibilities for characters than what you see in the film. The film is really just a leaping off point, so we’ve got to create a rich and diverse world that lives well beyond the films.

While no plans are currently in place to develop an Avatar MMO, it’s an interesting prospect. If it does happen we probably won’t be seeing it for another 3-4 years so, like the movies, we’ll just have to wait patiently.

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Earlier this year Peter Jackson made the decision to shoot The Hobbit movies at 48 frames per second, despite 24 fps being the film industry norm since the late 1920s. His reasoning was because at 48fps “the image has hugely enhanced clarity and smoothness” and “looks much more lifelike, and it is much easier to watch, especially in 3-D”.

This decision was a risk as there has never been a wide release feature film shot at this higher frame rate, so Warner Bros. and Jackson are “hopeful that there will be enough theaters capable of projecting 48 fps” by the time the first movie hits next December. Now James Cameron, who is familiar with technology-related risks, wants to go even higher by shooting the Avatar sequels at 60 fps.

Cameron told THR that he would “personally favor” 60 fps, but “other people may choose 48 for other reasons.”

“The reason I went down that path is because I believe it makes for better 3D,” Cameron said of his advocacy of higher frame rates in a new interview. “There were lots of arguments for why 48 and why 60. My feeling is if it is a software upgrade (for digital cinema projectors), do both. It doesn’t change anything at the projector; you don’t have to change the lamp house or the lenses. If you are uploading software you can upload it for 48 and 60 and let the filmmakers decide.”

In terms of how he will decide at what rate to shoot the Avatar sequels, Cameron said, “If the exhibitors will adopt the idea of a dual standard, than I’ll probably want to shoot 60. If they don’t, then I will have to look very carefully at the pros and cons of 60 and 48.”

When Peter Jackson announced his 48 fps decision he said 24 fps was by no means the best film speed, and it has only been used for so long because “it was the cheapest speed to achieve basic acceptable results back in 1927″. I’m always up for technological advancements when it’s clear there’s room for improvement, so hopefully The Hobbit can be shown at 48 fps next year. As Avatar 2 isn’t hitting screens until December 2014 Cameron has plenty of time for exhibitors to adopt the higher frame rates.

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Despite Dr. Grace Augustine being “with Eywa now” Sigourney Weaver hinted last year that her character could return in the Avatar sequels as she still exists “in the tree” and director James Cameron has thought of a way to keep “the family together” (i.e. the main cast).

While on the rounds promoting the Taylor Lautner/John Singleton thriller Abduction Weaver was asked about Avatar 2 and 3, and confirmed she will be back.

From Coming Soon:

“Don’t worry, I will be back,” she said of Avatar 2, confirming the hint that she dropped nearly a year ago, “Jim [Cameron] says no one ever dies in science fiction. He’s told me the stories for the next two movies and I have to say that they’re absolutely wonderful and there’s a real treat in store. Now we just have to make them.”

In June James Cameron said he was writing scripts for both films, which will be shot back-to-back, and they are currently “doing a lot of preliminary work right now on new software and new animation techniques.” Earlier this year Sam Worthington mentioned that Cameron is going to explore more of what lies beneath the oceans on Pandora, although he said “it won’t fully take place underwater but he’s definitely going to explore — same as the mountains, he can explore more, outer space [as well] — it’s up to him.”

Avatar 2 has a release date of December 2014 and Avatar 3 will hit a year later in December 2015. Filming will begin sometime next year.

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December 2014 and December 2015 are the release dates currently set for Avatar 2 and Avatar 3, and director James Cameron has been working on the scripts since the beginning of the year. With filming expected to begin next year Cameron still has plenty of time to finish them, and he gave at update on where he’s at in a recent interview.

From Fox News:

“We’re shooting two films back-to-back, so I’m writing two scripts, not one, which will complete a [three]-film story arc – not really a trilogy, but just an overall character arc so I’m pretty excited about that,” he said. “We’re doing a lot of preliminary work right now on new software and new animation techniques and so on. We’re creating a new facility in Manhattan Beach so everybody that’s not already dead is coming back.”

Cameron also spoke about the pressure of making the sequels following the $2.78 billion dollar success of the first film.

“There’s always an expectation. I had to deal with that after ‘The Terminator’ back in 1984. All of a sudden I had a big hit movie and it was ‘what are you doing next?’ But my job is take the audience on a journey and entertain them,” he added. “The second I am sitting down writing, I just go to Pandora. I don’t think about that stuff, about standing on a red carpet. It has its own life, really. The characters have their own lives.”

Earlier this year Sam Worthington mentioned that Cameron is going to explore more of what lies beneath the oceans on Pandora, although he said “it won’t fully take place underwater but he’s definitely going to explore — same as the mountains, he can explore more, outer space [as well] — it’s up to him.” Motion capture underwater will be a challenge, but Cameron has been pushing the boundaries of movie technology for years, so he’ll likely do it again.

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A few years ago James Cameron was deciding whether Avatar or Battle Angel would be his return to directing after nearly a decade long absence. He eventually moved forward with Avatar, as we know, and he has just signed up to direct Avatar 2 and Avatar 3 back-to-back for December 2014 and December 2015.

Fans of the manga comic Battle Angel Alita. which follows a cyborg who is found and repaired by a scientist, have been patiently waiting for Cameron to make it into a movie and while the director will be busy for the next 5 years, he insists he still wants to direct it.

From Collider:

I’m obviously going to be pretty busy for the next five years [with Avatar 2 and 3]. And so I had to consider, do I hand this project off to another director? And then I thought, ‘No, I love it too much.’”

It’s such a rich world. What I’m going to do is take the spine story and use elements from the first four books. So, the Motorball from books three and four, and parts of the story of one and two will all be in the movie.

Last year Cameron said:

Battle Angel, I think, is a science fiction movie that begs the question ‘What does it mean to be human?’ It takes place in a future world, a world that has cyborgs, but are you human if you have a mind, if you have a heart, if you have a soul? It’s a journey of a young girl who tries to discover herself and what she learns upon that journey… I just love the character. Maybe it’s from having daughters. I have three daughters, and thinking about what it’s like, the main character is this little girl that everybody kind of ignores. She’s got such a heroic heart on the inside, I’ve always loved that character.

I think there are a few other directors who could possibly tackle Battle Angel, but it looks like Cameron is keeping his hands on it for now. At this rate we can expect Battle Angel in 2020!

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