‘Avengers: Endgame’ Finally Conquers King Of The World James Cameron’s ‘Avatar’ To Become Highest-Grossing Film Of All Time

Marvel boss Kevin Feige made it official Saturday at the studio’s Comic-Con panel, announcing Avengers: Endgame is clicking past Avatar‘s $2.7897 billion global box office this weekend to become the biggest film of all time. It took nine years for the record to fall, but it finally happened.

There is currently a gap of $500K in global ticket sales between Avatar and Endgame, and the latter will click past that tomorrow.

“Thanks to you, Avengers: Endgame is the biggest film of all-time,” Feige told Hall H at the top of the Marvel panel.

As of this minute, the global B.O. for Endgame through yesterday stands at $2,789.2 billion. Why are Avatar‘s grosses higher than what’s on Box Office Mojo? Because its global B.O. was updated by Disney/Fox to reflect a small amount of reissue grosses in various territories over the years.

A great deal of the acceleration with Endgame had to do with a re-release that Disney/Marvel did with the Avengers pic on June 28 that featured a deleted Hulk sequence, a Stan Lee tribute and a post-credits scene featuring characters from Sony’s Spider-Man: Far From Home. At that time, Endgame was $37M from toppling Avatar, and many — both Disney insiders and rival distribution sources — didn’t believe the re-release would put the superhero pic over the top; Endgame‘s foreign territories outside China and the U.S. were quite short when compared to those of Avatar. However, we understand that extra cash from offshore flowed in.

This weekend, Endgame in its 13th weekend, is expected to make an estimated $1.28M from 985 theaters at the domestic box office, putting its running tally at $854.2M.

It only took Endgame 10 days to defeat Titanic‘s lifetime global record. At the domestic box office, Endgame has settled in the No. 2 spot on the all-time list, $82.5M behind Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ $936.6M.

When Joe and Anthony Russo were asked Friday at their AGBO Studios Comic-Con panel about Endgame ultimately conquering Avatar, the latter answered, “The fact that people have responded to Endgame this way and they’ve been following theses characters for so long, it’s cathartic for us to see in that the storytelling has played out globally. James Cameron is an idol for us, and he’s fed our passion for filmmaking from the beginning”

Only five films have passed the $2B mark at the global B.O., and between Cameron and the Russos they own two apiece: Cameron with Avatar and Titanic in spots 2 and 3,and the Russos with Avengers: Endgame and Avengers: Infinity War in spots 1 and 5. J.J. Abrams’ Star Wars: The Force Awakens stills ranks forth worldwide with $2.068B. In total, the Russos have racked up over $6.8 billion in their directing credits at the worldwide box office.

Beamed Alan Horn, co-chairman and chief creative officer, The Walt Disney Studios, in a statement today: “A huge congratulations to the Marvel Studios and Walt Disney Studios teams, and thank you to the fans around the world who lifted Avengers: Endgame to these historic heights. Of course, even with the passage of a decade, the impact of James Cameron’s Avatar remains as powerful as ever, and the astonishing achievements of both of these films are ongoing proof of the power of movies to move people and bring them together in a shared experience. The talented filmmakers behind these worlds have much more in store, and we look forward to the future of both the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Pandora.”

Disney will get the chance to upset Endgame‘s global B.O. title when it releases Cameron’s Avatar 2 on December 17, 2021.