The ongoing battle for all-time box office supremacy between James Cameron’s Avatar and this year’s Avengers: Endgame is nearly at a close, as Avengers: Endgame is now just $7 million away from breaking Avatar‘s decade-old record as the highest-grossing film in history.
Projected to have already surpassed Avatar at the worldwide box office by this point back during its first couple of weeks in theaters, Avengers: Endgame has snaked its way towards its coveted goal a bit more slowly than anticipated. Though it beat James Cameron’s sci-fi epic in the domestic box office ring during its initial run earlier this summer, Avengers: Endgame has still yet to top Avatar in the worldwide market, despite getting a theatrical re-release late last month. Avengers: Endgame is by no means a disappointment for Disney by any means, however, as the thought of coming so close to Avatar’s incredible $2.787 billion figure – let alone exceeding it – likely seemed unthinkable prior to Avengers: Endgame’s premiere.
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According to Variety, Avengers: Endgame scored another $2.8 million at this weekend’s box office, inching it’s all-time gross revenue to $2.78 billion and putting the film just $7.2 million away from finally shattering Avatar’s long-time record. Reasonably, this most recent injection of moviegoer money can be traced to Spider-Man: Far From Home’s second weekend in theaters, especially when adding the weight of the deep, intrinsic plot connections between the films.
Because its not known how much longer Disney will keep the Avengers: Endgame re-release in theater, things have really come down to the wire in this battle of the ages of this and last decade’s biggest blockbusters. Avengers: Endgame co-director Anthony Russo has previously implied that it ultimately won’t matter to him whether or not the film surpasses Avatar’s previously untouchable success, but one has to wonder if he and the rest of Avengers: Endgame’s filmmakers will change their tune if the movie suddenly comes out on top in the coming days. Of course, even if Avengers: Endgame achieves this impressive milestone, the coming storm of Avatar 2 still looms on the horizon of 2021.
The odds of film history being made by Avengers: Endgame over the course of the next week or so are looking quite likely, and the newly set bar stands to potentially be near-unconquerable, with Avengers: Infinity War and Star Wars: The Force Awakens before it having each only been able to climb past the $2 billion mark. Of course, the list of history’s highest grossing films is considerably top-heavy with newer films, so it’s likely only a matter of time before Avengers: Endgame’s likely throne is taken by another, even more wildly successful movie.
Source: Variety
Key Release Dates
- Avatar 2 (2021) release date: Dec 17, 2021
- Avatar 3 (2023) release date: Dec 22, 2023
- Avatar 4 (2025) release date: Dec 19, 2025
- Avatar 5 (2027) release date: Dec 17, 2027
