`TITANIC' STILL UNSINKABLE AT BOX OFFICE.

Byline: Jeff Wilson Associated Press 

James Cameron's ``Titanic'' earned $35.6 million to set a three-day December box office record and retain the No. 1 position, far ahead of ``Tomorrow Never Dies,'' according to studio estimates Sunday.

The $200 million ocean disaster epic, the most expensive movie ever made, eclipsed the $33 million three-day take from this month's debut of ``Scream 2.'' The horror sequel, which still holds the record for a December opening, dipped to sixth place.

``Tomorrow Never Dies,'' the latest James Bond adventure, took in $21 million.

``Titanic'' already has earned $87 million and will likely pass the $100 million mark by Friday, ``which is just amazing,'' said Robert Bucksbaum, president of the film industry newsletter Reel Source.

Ticket sales were up 23 percent in its second week, and the average take at 2,711 locations was $12,900, considered extremely high.

``It's just doing tremendously well,'' Paramount spokesman Blaise Noto said.

The figures were even more impressive because the 3-hour, 14-minute running time allowed theaters only a limited number of showings. The PG-13 rating also helped during a weekend when family audiences were the norm.

`` `Titanic' is getting a lot of repeat business. It's just that good of a film,'' Bucksbaum said. ``A lot of people felt it would have a lot of trouble getting its money back.

``Now, it looks like it will stay strong and undoubtedly get a strong spike with the Academy Award nominations in February. It's probably a leading candidate for best picture and a nomination can add 50 percent to the gross.''

``Titanic'' earlier had the biggest-ever Christmas Day take with $9.2 million, eclipsing the $6 million earned by ``Godfather III'' in 1990.

Among new films, TriStar's ``As Good As It Gets'' did the best, placing third. The Jack Nicholson-Helen Hunt romantic comedy earned $12.5 million at 1,572 locations for a $7,952 per-location average.

``Eight new pictures opened this weekend, and we beat all of them. It is very encouraging that a well-written, well-acted and well-directed film did so well,'' said Ed Russell, spokesman for Columbia/TriStar.

DreamWorks SKG also scored big with an audience surge for the movies ``MouseHunt,'' up 65 percent over its debut weekend, and ``Amistad,'' up 55 percent from its previous weekend.

The most significant disaster was ``The Postman,'' with Kevin Costner as star, director and producer. The poorly reviewed epic about a post-apocalyptic mail carrier cost more than $80 million to make and had less than $4 million in opening weekend receipts to finish out of the top 10.

``It's a hard film to sell because it has a lot of competition,'' Bucksbaum said. ``Warner Bros. was really counting on this film to end their season on a positive note.''

The new Quentin Tarantino film ``Jackie Brown'' debuted at No. 5 with $8.8 million and ``An American Werewolf in Paris'' was seventh with $7.8 million. ``Mr. Magoo,'' the Leslie Nielsen comedy based on the nearsighted cartoon character, debuted in ninth place with $5.5 million.

Final figures were to be released today.

Here are the studios' estimated grosses for the top 10 movies at North American theaters Friday through Sunday:

1. ``Titanic,'' $35.6 million

2. ``Tomorrow Never Dies,'' $21 million

3. ``As Good As It Gets,'' $12.5 million

4. ``MouseHunt,'' $10 million

5. ``Jackie Brown,'' $8.8 million

6. ``Scream 2,'' $8.7 million

7. ``An American Werewolf in Paris,'' $7.8 million

8. ``Flubber,'' $5.8 million

9. ``Mr. Magoo,'' $5.5 million

10. ``Amistad,'' $5.1 million