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Blizzards and other winter storms might have kept some people in the northern states out of theaters, but they sure found a way to shovel themselves to the box office during the week to see "Avatar."

The James Cameron film has averaged around $16 million a day, including breaking the record for the biggest non-summer Monday take. However, by Wednesday, it had new competition: "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel."

That movie with its own brand of CGI for an entirely different audience, earned $18.7 million at the box office Wednesday, giving it the best Wednesday-before-Christmas opening in box office history. Although it was able to get past "Avatar," the Chipmunks didn't beat it by much. The Pandora rain forest epic pulled in $13.3 million Wednesday and has now upped its box office total to $125.9 million in less than a week.

Projections for "Avatar" still have it reaching just under $1 billion worldwide, about 60 percent of what Cameron's previous film "Titanic" picked up in 1997. It also seems to have its work cut out for it this weekend when Robert Downey Jr.'s new film "Sherlock Holmes" hits theaters.

Besides "The Chipmunks" and "Avatar," there's really no other films giving chase in the holiday box office ahead of "Sherlock Holmes." On Tuesday, the second-place movie was "The Princess and the Frog" from Disney, which picked up $3.1 million to bring its total to $50.8 million, according to Showbiz Data. "The Blind Side" was in third place with $2.2 million, adding to its $168.9 million bank.

"Avatar" could end up with about $375 million domestically when its run is over, although much of that won't count for 2009 numbers since that year is almost over. That would put it around 87th place all-time for films when adjusted for inflation, according to Box Office Mojo grouped with films such as "Ghost" and "Mrs. Doubtfire."

Both "Avatar" and "The Chipmunks" have helped push Fox over the domestic $1 billion mark for the year, holding its fifth-place finish ahead of Universal, which has grossed $826.3 million and an 8.3 percent market share.

Warner Bros. will easily win the year in box office with just under $2 billion and a 19.7 percent market share, according to Box Office Mojo. Paramount, with the strength of "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" and "Star Trek" is going to finish with around $1.45 billion, or a 14.6 percent market share.

However, Paramount has had more bang for the buck. Warner Bros. has averaged about $54.4 million per film while Paramount has picked up an average of $90.7 million per film.

"Avatar" is now playing in theaters worldwide.