Disney has officially announced that James Cameron’s Avatar has reclaimed its title of the highest-grossing film of all-time at the worldwide box office, overtaking Marvel Studio’ Avengers: Endgame. This is thanks to the re-release of Avatar in China which began on Friday and which through its first two days has added an estimated RMB 80M ($12.3M) to the total haul.
The new totals now put Avatar’s worldwide gross at $2.802B versus Endgame’s $2.797B haul. At the end of the day, Disney wins as Avatar is owned by The Walt Disney Company via the Disney/Fox merger two years ago. Avatar became the top-selling global release of all time in 2010 when it passed Cameron’s own blockbuster disaster film Titanic. In July 2019, Endgame overtook Avatar, now the latter has once again reclaimed the title.
Marvel Studios took to Twitter to congratulate 20th Century Studios and company on the achievement:
Read: James Cameron’s ‘Avatar’ Expected To Top All-Time Box Office (Again) This Weekend
Cameron shared a statement with China.org on Thursday in preparation for Avatar’s return to the big screen:
We’ve got climate change, we’ve got deforestation, our relationship with nature is more at risk than it’s ever been, and Avatar is about those things, but it also is a timeless film. Some people criticize the stories for being too simple. It wasn’t that simple — it was universal. It was something that everybody everywhere could understand and emotionally related to.
For fans of the Avatar franchise, you’re in luck. James Cameron has been busy working on the sequels. Disney has scheduled Avatar 2 for Dec. 16, 2022; part 3 for Dec. 20, 2024; part 4 for Dec. 18, 2026; and part five for Dec. 22, 2028.
