While most eyes in the nerd-verse were turned to San Diego, where SDCC delivered exciting news of upcoming projects, a few stragglers headed to theaters for one more screening of ‘Avengers: Endgame’, finally pushing that Marvel behemoth past ‘Avatar’ making it the #1 movie of all time. ‘Endgame’ had already shattered records and expectations when it opened on April 26, and scored the #1 opening night ever and made $1.2 billion after its first weekend.
But the competition heated up fairly quickly. ‘Endgame’ was only #1 in the world for two weeks (three in the US) before ‘Detective Pikachu’ took it down, followed by ‘John Wick 3’. As phenomenally well as ‘Endgame’ did, it did not look as though it would catch up to ‘Avatar’s $2.7897 billion total, especially with the home video release coming right around the corner. But in June, Marvel tacked some extra footage onto the end of the movie, in order to entice fans back to theaters. It seems to have worked, as ‘Endgame’s total now sits at $2.790 billion, just barely more than James Cameron’s 2009 CGI extravaganza. Just last weekend, ‘Endgame’ lagged behind ‘Avatar’ by a pretty daunting $7 million.
In a statement, Disney Studios co-chairman and chief creative officer Alan Horn expressed:
“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.”
While this is a victory without a doubt, as luck would have it, ‘Avatar’ was released by 20th Century Fox, which now belongs to Disney, and there are FOUR high-stakes ‘Avatar’ sequels in the works, which Disney wants to be successful, especially considering how freakin’ expensive they are to make. So pardon Disney if their victory dance isn’t too flashy.
As Horn went on to say in his statement:
“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.”
Expect ‘Avengers: Endgame’ to retain this record for a long time. Marvel is moving on to Phase 4, and as exciting as those projects are, none of them is a potential ‘Endgame’-sized monster. And honestly, I don’t predict the ‘Avatar’ sequels to measure up to the first.
‘Avengers: Endgame’ will be released on digital on July 30 and Blu-Ray, 4K HD and DVD on August 13.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
