‘Avatar’ once again highest grossing film of all time at the box office

“Avatar” is once again the highest grossing film of all time.

Over the weekend, James Cameron’s sci-fi epic was reissued in China and garnered enough ticket sales to overtake “Avengers: Endgame” for the record.

“Avatar” first 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 gain of $ 2.797 billion.

On Saturday, “Avatar” box office gross sales topped $ 2.802 billion, allowing it to reclaim its crown.

“These two movie titans have been fighting at the box office of Mount Olympus for years,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore. “As ‘Avatar’ takes the crown again, the importance of the big screen experience, both in terms of its cultural impact and of course its massive revenue-generating power, is highlighted.

“Endgame” directors Joe and Anthony Russo took to social media to congratulate Cameron.

“I’ll send the glove back to you,” they wrote in the post.

Originally part of re-releases pre-approved by the Chinese Film Bureau in 2020, the 2009 sci-fi epic has remained in Disney’s vault during the ongoing pandemic.

While China has been able to regain ticket sales in recent months, its rollout of successful new features has slowed following the Chinese New Year celebrations. Adding “Avatar” to its theaters is a way to increase attendance and give operators a much needed boost at a time when new films are not coming out.

“We are proud to have reached this big milestone, but Jim and I are very happy that the film is back in theaters in these unprecedented times, and we would like to thank our Chinese fans for their support,” said the 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 slated for release in 2022. It will be one of five to come in the next decade. Disney only recently acquired “Avatar”, although the film was previously licensed to build land in the Animal Kingdom theme park in Florida.

In 2019, Disney finalized its agreement to acquire entertainment assets from 20th Century Fox, including “Avatar” from James Cameron.

As it stands, Disney has the five highest grossing movies of all time and eight of the top ten. Notably, “Titanic,” which currently sits in third place, was a joint production between Paramount Pictures and 20th Century Fox. The other films are “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”, “Avengers: Infinity War”, the 2019 live-action remake of “The Lion King”, “Avengers” and “Frozen II”.