Avengers: Endgame dethrones Avatar as highest-grossing film in history
Thanos would say it was… inevitable.
Marvel’s superhero epic Avengers: Endgame is set to unseat James Cameron’s sci-fi smash Avatar as the highest-grossing film ever at the worldwide box office, Disney announced Saturday. As of Friday, Endgame’s global haul clocked in at $2,789,200,000, just $500,000 short of Avatar’s $2,789,700,000, and it should close the gap by Sunday.
Directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, Endgame has been in theaters for 13 weeks and has been a box office juggernaut. Last month, Disney re-released the movie with additional footage to get it over the hump. (Avatar, which was first released in 2009, has also been reissued in various territories over the years.)
Alan Horn, co-chairman and chief creative officer of the Walt Disney Studios, said in a statement, “A huge congratulations to the Marvel Studios and Walt Disney Studios teams, and thank you to the fans around the world who lifted Avengers: Endgame to these historic heights. Of course, even with the passage of a decade, the impact of James Cameron’s Avatar remains as powerful as ever, and the astonishing achievements of both of these films are ongoing proof of the power of movies to move people and bring them together in a shared experience. The talented filmmakers behind these worlds have much more in store, and we look forward to the future of both the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Pandora.”
Once Endgame passes Avatar, which was first released in 2009, Cameron will still lay claim to the No. 2 and No. 3 films of all time, the latter being 1997’s Titanic, with $2,187,500,000.
Disney, meanwhile, now controls the Avatar franchise since acquiring Fox’s film and TV assets in a huge deal earlier this year. Cameron is working on four Avatar sequels.
As for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Endgame marked the end of an era, but Marvel Studios began unveiling plans for the future of the franchise at San Diego Comic-Con on Saturday. Upcoming movies include The Eternals and Shang-Chi.
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