They did it. They finally did it. Avatar has officially been dethroned as the highest-grossing movie of all time by Avengers: Endgame.
Holy crow.
It’s no secret that Avatar and Avengers: Endgame have long been battling it out at the box office. Ever since Endgame dropped in theaters back in April, it was beating box office record after box office record, including being the highest opening weekend gross and being the fastest to gross one billion in a single weekend. It didn’t take long for Endgame to dethrone other $2 billion-grossing movies such as Titanic, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and even the previous installment Infinity War.
Even so, there was quite a distance between Endgame’s $2.76 billion and Avatar’s $2.789 billion box office intake. For a while, it seemed that Avatar would remain king of the box office.
Not anymore. Thanks to Kevin Feige re-releasing Endgame with new content (including a Stan Lee tribute, a deleted Hulk scene, and the opening scene to Spider-Man: Far From Home), Endgame was able to barely push ahead past Avatar and end its theatrical run with $2.79 billion, cementing its place as the highest-grossing movie of all time.
What’s especially ironic about this is that since Walt Disney bought out 20th Century Fox earlier this year, it also took ownership of several of its film properties, including Avatar. That means not only was Walt Disney essentially competing against itself: it also prevailed against itself.
With Avengers: Endgame now in the top spot as the highest-grossing movie of all time, Disney officially owns the five highest-grossing movies of all time and even owns eight of the 10 highest-grossing movies of all time as well. With those odds, it won’t be long until Disney owns Universal Pictures as well, whose pictures Jurassic World and Furious 7 are the only ones in the top 10 not owned by Disney.
Avengers assemble, indeed.
– David Dunn
SOURCE: Deadline, Entertainment Weekly
DAVID DUNN 