Fox International has crossed $2bn for the fourth time in its history, reaching the milestone at least five months before any other distributor.

No other company has reported $2bn in overseas ticket sales before December. Fox International’s achievement is all the more remarkable when one considers that by February of this year it had already beaten its own previous speed record for reaching $1bn, set in June 2006

The key locomotive of course has been Avatar, which grossed $1.4bn this year alone en route to its extraordinary $1.987bn running total.

Other key drivers for the year-to-date are: Alvin 2 on $152.5m fro 2010; Percy Jackson And The Olympians: The Lightning Thief on $138m; Date Night on $53.8m; and Tooth Fairy on $52.7m.

Local productions Hot Summer Days and My Name Is Khan delivered impressive results, as the former grossed more than $19m in China and the latter reached $38.4m and set record opening weekends for a Bollywood film in the UK, Australia, Germany, Spain, Holland, New Zealand and the UAE.

The A-Team has taken $36m from he early stages and is yet to open in a number of major markets, while Knight & Day ventures into an initial dozen or so markets this weekend in Asia, the Caribbean and Europe.

“This has been a spectacular year for our division,” Fox International co-president Paul Hanneman said. “We are incredibly proud of our entire team, both in Los Angeles and around the world – without their hard work and extraordinary talent we would not have been able to achieve this amazing success.”

Co-president Tomas Jegeus added: “Our year is just beginning: we look forward to continuing our success with such highly anticipated films as James Mangold’s Knight & Day starring Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz; Tony Scott’s Unstoppable starring Denzel Washington and Chris Pine; The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader and Gulliver’s Travels starring Jack Black.”