Avatar: The Way of Water is continuing its march through the upper reaches of the all-time takings charts as it becomes the sixth film to break the $2bn mark in worldwide box-office receipts.

According to Deadline, the Avatar sequel directed by James Cameron reached a total of $2.024bn on Sunday, meaning that it is now ahead of Spider-Man: No Way Home and Jurassic World on the list of highest grossing films. Deadline predicts that it will overtake the next two films, Avengers: Infinity War and Star Wars: The Force Awakens later this week to reach No 4.

This will mean Cameron will have directed three of the top four films of all time, with the first Avatar film at No 1 with $2.9bn, and Titanic at No 3 with $2.2bn. Only Avengers: Endgame, at No 2 with $2.8bn, interrupts the sequence.

Avatar: The Way of Water’s results have been greatly assisted by its dominance outside the US box office. Deadline reports it has become the No 1 all-time film in Austria, Lebanon, Slovakia, Mongolia and Colombia among others, and has become the biggest Hollywood film of all time in India (where it has taken $57.9m). Its strongest non-US territory is China, where it has been the No 1 film for five weeks and yielding $229.7m. However the lunar new year holiday has seen a crop of commercial new releases, with The Wandering Earth II replacing it at the top of the charts.

Analysis by Screen Rant’s Stephen M Colbert suggests that the film’s final haul will be at least $2.5bn, which would see it overtake Titanic and land in third place.