MUMBAI: Friday‘s performance of James Cameron‘s epic sci-fi Avatar raked in an estimated $3.5 million in domestic box-office in the United States.

With a running time of more than 2 1/2 hours, the film unspooled in a mix of 3D and 2D venues amid mostly positive reviews and expectations of a first-weekend haul exceeding $80 million.

The current record-holder for midnight openings, Summit Entertainment‘s The Twilight Saga: New Moon grossed $26.3 million in its opening night last month.
Avatar, which unlike the Summit film was not based on a book but an original concept and screenplay was never likely to set a midnight record.

Avatar played on about 2,000 mostly 3D screens for its earliest show times but will boast about 3,000 3D screens the rest of the weekend and an equal number of 2D auditoriums. Its domestic theater count is more than 3,400.

Fox is also opening the film in a mix of motion-capture animation and live-action -- in many foreign territories this week but refused to release any estimates of its international box-office until Sunday.

Avatar opens in Japan on Wednesday, in China on 2 January and in Italy on 15 January.