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Avatar Overtakes Avengers: Endgame As All-Time Highest Grossing Film

Avatar Overtakes Avengers: Endgame As All-Time Highest Grossing Film

A reissue in China has boosted the film's earnings

Dominic Smithers

Dominic Smithers

Avatar has overtaken Avengers: Endgame as the highest-grossing movie of all time.

The 2009 blockbuster had long been the most successful film ever made, raking in well over $2,789 billion. That was until Marvel took the crown with its 2019 release.

But after a recent reissue in China saw it take in a further $8.9 million, Avatar has reclaimed its position as the most successful film.

This means that Avatar's global total is an estimated $2,798,579,794 while Endgame's stands at $2,797,501,328.

It's predicted that the reissue will take in a total of $58m for James Cameron's iconic fantasy drama.

Speaking to China.org on Thursday (11 March), Cameron said the film still strikes a chord with people today because of the topics it touches on.

A reissue in China saw it overtake Endgame.
20th Century Fox

He said: "We've got climate change, we've got deforestation, our relationship with nature is more at risk than it's ever been, and Avatar is about those things, but it also is a timeless film.

"Some people criticize the stories for being too simple. It wasn't that simple - it was universal. It was something that everybody everywhere could understand and emotionally related to."

And he's not done with the story either.

Cameron recently confirmed that Avatar 2 had finally finished shooting, after production faced delays due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Speaking to long-time collaborator Arnold Schwarzenegger to promote the 2020 Austrian World Summit environmental conference, Cameron said the process was 'a hundred percent' complete, and he and his team are even almost there with the Avatar 3, too.

Cameron, who is still in New Zealand filming the third instalment, said: "Covid hit us like it hit everybody... We lost about four and a half months of production.

Endgame became the highest-grossing film ever following its release in 2019.
Marvel

"As a result of that, we've rolled around one more full year for a release in December of 2022. That's been announced already. Now that doesn't mean I have an extra year to finish the film, because the day we deliver Avatar 2 we'll just start working on finishing Avatar 3.

"So where we are right now, I'm down in New Zealand shooting. We're shooting the remainder of the live action. We've got about ten percent left to go.

"We're a hundred percent complete on Avatar 2 and we're sort of ninety five percent complete on Avatar 3."

The first follow-up to Cameron's 3D blockbuster was originally supposed to be released in 2014, however, due to the enormous scale of the project it's taken much, much longer than first expected.

A more realistic release date of 21 December 2021 seemed doable until the pandemic struck, which led to Disney taking the decision to push things back a year to 17 December 2022.

Featured Image Credit: 20th Century Fox

Topics: New Zealand, covid, World News, Entertainment, Pandemic, Coronavirus, US Entertainment, Marvel