Avatar
Source: Walt Disney Studios
“Avatar” is once again the highest grossing film of all time.
Over the weekend, James Cameron’s science fiction epic was relaunched in China and earned enough tickets to surpass “Avengers: Endgame” for the record.
“Avatar” became the best-selling global release of all time in 2010, when it usurped Cameron’s “Titanic”. In 2019, “Avengers: Endgame” won the title with a box office of $ 2.777 billion.
On Saturday, the box office for “Avatar” surpassed $ 2.802 billion, allowing him to win back his crown.
“These two movie titans have been fighting at the Mt. Olympus box office for years,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore. “As ‘Avatar’ once again takes the crown, the importance of the big screen experience, both in terms of its cultural impact and, of course, its enormous revenue-generating power, is brought into sharper focus.”
The directors of “Endgame”, Joe and Anthony Russo, went to social media to congratulate Cameron.
“Passing the challenge back to you,” they wrote in the post.
Originally part of the China Film Bureau’s pre-approved reissues in 2020, the 2009 science fiction epic remained in Disney’s safe during the ongoing pandemic.
Although China has managed to recover some ticket sales in recent months, the launch of highly successful new features has slowed down after the Chinese New Year celebrations. Adding “Avatar” to theaters is a way to reach audiences and give operators a much needed boost at a time when new films are not being released.
“We are proud to achieve this great milestone, but Jim and I are very excited about the film’s return to theaters in unprecedented times, and we want to thank our Chinese fans for their support,” said producer Jon Landau. “We are working hard on the next Avatar films and look forward to sharing the continuation of this epic story for years to come.”
The first new movie in the Avatar franchise is scheduled to be released in 2022. It will be one of five that will come in the next decade. Disney recently acquired “Avatar”, although the film was already licensed to build land at the Animal Kingdom theme park in Florida.
In 2019, Disney concluded its deal to acquire entertainment assets from 20th Century Fox, including James Cameron’s “Avatar”.
As it stands, Disney has the five highest grossing films of all time and eight of the top ten. Notably, “Titanic”, which is currently in third, was a joint production of Paramount Pictures and 20th Century Fox. The other films are “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”, “Avengers: Infinity War”, the live-action remake 2019 of “The Lion King”, “Avengers” and “Frozen II”.