Avatar Beats Avengers: Endgame and Reclaims All-Time Highest Grossing Box Office Record

It’s been a great run for Marvel’s Avengers: Endgame, but the film’s run at the top of the all-time highest-grossing film at the box office list has come to an end. As for who ended the run, well, it’s exactly who you think, as the previous record-holder has overtaken Endgame to reclaim its crown, and that’s James Cameron’s Avatar. With theaters starting to reopen in some markets across the globe, exhibitors started rescreening Avatar this week in China, and that’s allowed Avatar to overcome the tight lead that Endgame had (via Deadline). Unless Endgame gets a reissue at some point down the line, it looks like Avatar will keep the crown for a bit.

The reissue has brought in an estimated RMB of 58 million ($8.9 million USD) through 5 pm local time on Saturday. It re-released on Friday, and with that $8.9 million surpassed Endgame’s lead of $7.2 million, though the film will still be in theaters through at least Tuesday, where it is already leading pre-sales, so it will continue to build in a nice cushion.

The current estimated total for Avatar globally is $2,798,579,794 (at this moment), and Endgame brought in $2,797,501,328.

Now, it is interesting that Avatar took back the lead with a reissue, which kind of came out of nowhere. That’s because Endgame actually managed to surpass Avatar originally with a rerelease of its own, though it still took place in the same calendar year as the original release. Disney released Endgame in June of 2019 with a special edition that featured some exclusive special features and allowed fans who went to theaters to see it to snag an exclusive Iron Man poster.

The rerelease featured a special Stan Lee tribute,an unfinished scene that featured Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk, and a sneak peek at Spider-Man: Far From Home, which was set to hit theaters soon after. The Hulk scene had a CG placeholder of Hulk and a cool cameo from Reginald VelJohnson as Hulk saved people from a burning building, which would have occurred before the scene in the restaurant where we first see Hulk in the final version.

The plan worked too, as the rerelease was able to generate enough box office to clear Avatar’s record. Now Avatar is taking it back, so it would seem it’s your move Disney.

Would you want to see Disney rerelease Endgame to take back the crown? Let us know in the comments or feel free to talk all things Marvel with me on Twitter @MattAguilarCB!