Can the Avengers: Endgame Box Office Surpass Titanic?

To call Avengers: Endgame a box office smash at this point is understating the issue. The film has utterly defied all expectations in its opening weekend bringing in a staggering $357 million at the domestic box office and $1.21 billion worldwide. With numbers like that, it's safe to say that the film will ultimately land somewhere near the top of the all-time highest grossing films, it's just a matter of where and we can't help but wonder: will Endgame beat out Titanic?

Currently, Titanic is sitting at the number two spot in the all-time box office. Released in 1997, the James Cameron film ended its run with a total worldwide box office take of $2.188 billion. Another Cameron film, 2009's Avatar, is sitting in the top spot with $2.79 billion. Now, we've already broken down Endgame's odds against Avatar -- you can check that out here -- but for the sake of argument let's focus on overtaking Titanic. Right now, just coming out of its opening weekend, Endgame already has 55% of Titanic's total box office. But, the tale of a film's ending box office numbers is told not just in huge openings, but how the film performs over time. In the case of Titanic, the historically-based romantic drama had a solid second week, its box office take actually bringing in 34.4% more than its opening week.

But Endgame has something that Titanic didn't and that's the anticipation factor. It's not hyperbole to say that there's never been another film quite like Endgame. The culmination of 21 previous films, fans have been watching the story lead up to Endgame for over a decade. Add to that the way it's direct predecessor Avengers: Infinity War left off last year, the actual audience demand for Endgame is like nothing we've seen before. It's very possible that Endgame will come out of its second weekend in theaters with another huge box office total and while that's a little unusual for Marvel Cinematic Universe films as they generally see a significant drop at the domestic box office during the second week of release, the film is very likely to still perform well. Showings for Endgame were selling out all over the country even with having the widest release ever.

We also have to consider the performance of superhero blockbuster films overall, though. A fairly common blockbuster multiplier at this point in time ends up in the 2.5x to 3.5x range, though most MCU film don't quite make it to the higher end of the range. With that and what we know so far about how the film has performed opening weekend, Avengers: Endgame could end up somewhere between $2.42 and $4.23 billion dollars -- more than enough to launch it above Titanic and, very possibly, take it higher than any other movie ever.

Avengers: Endgame is now in theaters.

What do you think? Will Endgame overtake Titanic? Let us know your thought in the comments below.