Avengers: Endgame has reclaimed its crown from James Cameron's Avatar to become the highest-grossing movie ever at the worldwide box office. This comes after the 2019 blockbuster returned to theaters last weekend as Avengers Endgame: Encore.
The extended version of the movie featured a new ending and a few post-credits scenes meant to set up December's Avengers: Doomsday.
Avengers: Endgame became the biggest movie of all time in 2020, only to be dethroned in 2021 when Cameron's 3D epic was re-released to build hype for Avatar: The Way of Water. Now, the MCU movie is back on top and unlikely to be beaten for a long time.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day will tap out with around $2.5 billion, whereas Avengers: Endgame sits at a massive $2.926 billion after a second weekend that saw it gross $4.5 million in North America and $13.5 million overseas.
That brings the Encore's total to an impressive $126 million (for context, that's the same amount Supergirl made during its entire run this summer), helping it surpass Avatar's $2.924 billion haul. However, with such a significant drop for its sophomore frame, Avengers: Endgame won't become the first movie to hit $3 billion in the coming weeks.
Even with the huge amount of hype surrounding Avengers: Doomsday, it's hard to imagine the movie reaching these same heights. It will, however, almost certainly do Spider-Man: Brand New Day-like numbers over the holidays.
This is an incredible feat for Marvel Studios, and one that spurs the studio on to find similar success heading into these next Avengers movies and the mutant-centric Saga set to follow. As for the Avatar franchise, there's still no word on when or if we'll see that fourth instalment, but Avatar: Fire and Ash "underperformed" by grossing $1.4 billion last year.
The grave course of events set in motion by Thanos that wiped out half the universe and fractured the Avengers ranks compels the remaining Avengers to take one final stand in Marvel Studios’ grand conclusion to twenty-two films, Avengers: Endgame.
Directed by Anthony and Joe Russo and written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, the movie features an epic ensemble which includes Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Don Cheadle, Paul Rudd, Brie Larson, Karen Gillan, Danai Gurira, Benedict Wong, Jon Favreau, Bradley Cooper, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Josh Brolin.
"Avengers: Endgame is a masterpiece which not only delivers on every expectation you had but exceeds ones you didn't even think about," we wrote in our review of the re-release. "This isn't just a movie; it's an experience and one that only gets better for its Encore."
Avengers Endgame: Encore is now playing in theaters.