Avengers: Endgame Just Stole the All-Time Box Office Crown Back From Avatar

The crown bounced again. This time it landed on the Avengers.

On October 4, Avengers: Endgame reclaimed the all-time worldwide box office title at $2.9255 billion, edging past James Cameron’s Avatar at $2.9237 billion - a gap of roughly $1.8 million. Marvel Studios posted the love-you-3000 thank-you. Joe and Anthony Russo dropped a 52-second fan video calling it one of the most special moments of their careers.

How a re-release did it

Avengers Endgame: Encore hit theaters September 25 with new footage, four new end-credits scenes, and a tease for Avengers: Doomsday. Opening weekend: $26.1 million domestic - the first re-release to take U.S. No. 1 since The Lion King 3D in 2011. Second weekend added $4.4M domestic and $14.4M overseas. Encore has put about $126 million onto Endgame’s lifetime total so far, including strong China, Latin America, and India numbers.

This is round three of the Avatar–Endgame rematch. Avatar ruled for a decade. Endgame took it in 2019. Avatar took it back in 2021. Now Marvel is on top again - barely.

Why the timing is not subtle

The Russos are directing Avengers: Doomsday (December 18) and Secret Wars. Doomsday already became the earliest film to hit $50 million in domestic advance tickets. Disney owns seven of the ten highest-grossing films ever. The MCU as a whole has passed $35 billion.

Avatar can reclaim it again with another re-release. For now the biggest movie number on Earth belongs to a seven-year-old finale that just got a victory lap before its sequel.

The magazine read

$2.9255B. $1.8M ahead of Avatar. Doomsday in December. Endgame did not just re-release - it reclaimed the planet.