James Cameron congratulates Avengers on becoming the new box office king

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Update: After posting a thank you to the fans the Russo Brothers posted another message reacting to Cameron's congratulations. 

Original: After nine and half years and over 20 movies like HARRY POTTER, JURASSIC WORLD and STAR WARS shattering records and never coming close to reaching its staggering total, James Cameron’s AVATAR has finally met its match at the global box office in AVENGERS: ENDGAME. Over the weekend the new movie from Marvel Studios bested the space epic’s $2.789 billion frame by the narrowest of margins for a $2.790 billion total (as of this writing), and not long after Cameron put out a brief statement congratulating the Marvel team and passing on the crown.

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Early this morning a tweet was issued via the AVATAR twitter account featuring an image of Iron Man as the Woodsprites (yes, I had to look that up) surround him, much like they did Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) in Cameron’s movie. Across the image is the filmmaker’s statement, “Oel ngati kameie, I see you Marvel – Congratulations to Avengers Endgame on becoming the new box-office king. – Jim Cameron”

Dominating the box office for weeks during its late 2009-early 2010 run (and a brief re-release later in 2010), Cameron’s movie demolished all expectations and smacked all in the face who thought the movie would tank, going on to make its ungodly sum by the end of its run. Many movies came out between then and ENDGAME that dominated the box office, but even the likes of STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS and AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR made only a tad over $2 billion, with Cameron’s own TITANIC being the nearest second-place standing at over $2.1 billion.

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Arriving at the end of April it didn’t take long for people to realize that ENDGAME could be the movie to top the incredible sum after it shattered the opening weekend record with $357 million domestic and over $1.2 billion globally. It made short work of competitors around the globe, and Cameron even congratulated Marvel after it passed TITANIC’s total in about two weeks. Soon the brakes slowed down ENDGAME’s run, and though it passed $2.7 billion it seemed that after two months it had just about made all the money it could. But with the release of SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME and an expansion for ENDGAME that featured additional content, the movie saw a slight uptick at the box office, propelling it to its current supremacy. I can only imagine Queen's "We Are the Champions" is on a loop Marvel Studios as expensive champagne flows in a makeshift stream. That may or may not be true (it is), but AVENGERS directors Joe and Anthony Russo took time to thank all the Marvel fans after their movie hit the major milestone. 

Of course, it goes without saying AVATAR still has ENDGAME easily beat if we look at the numbers when adjusted for inflation, with the former's numbers easily topping $3 billion. Hell, TITANIC's numbers are even bigger, with it pushing beyond $3.5 billion. And yet, the torch has been passed, and Cameron has several shots to top the superhero team with several more AVATAR movies on the way. Either way, now that it owns the AVATAR movies, most of the bragging rights will go to Disney anyway.