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For the second time in less than three months, James Cameron has taken to Twitter to congratulate Marvel Studios and its Avengers: Endgame on advancing past one of his own massive record holders. Back in May, Cameron saluted the MCU series-ender for sailing past Titanic as the No. 2 movie ever at the global and international box office. Today, he congratulated Marvel and Earth’s mightiest heroes as they dethroned Avatar for the title of highest-grossing film of all time worldwide.
In a post on the official Avatar account today, Cameron wrote, “I see you, Marvel,” using the Na’vi greeting over a graphic of Iron Man surrounded by Pandoran woodsprites. Below that, the filmmaker added, “Congratulations to Avengers: Endgame on becoming the new box-office king.”
On Saturday at Comic-Con, Marvel boss Kevin Feige announced that Endgame was clicking past Avatar‘s all-time record, which itself had increased to $2,789.7M globally (owing to a small amount of previously unreported reissue grosses in various territories).
Yesterday, Endgame‘s global cume lifted to $2,790.2M. It added $1.5M globally this weekend and still has some smaller markets to get the re-release version. That one initially went out domestically and in select offshore markets on June 28, which helped push Endgame ahead of Avatar.
While Endgame needed the re-release and a longer window to top Avatar, it only took the film 10 days to defeat Titanic‘s lifetime global record. But Cameron will get the chance to upset the Avengers’ top dog status when his Avatar 2 arrives in December 2021.
Of course, both are now under the Disney umbrella. As Endgame passed the Na’vi this weekend, Disney Co-Chariman and CCO Alan Horn said, “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.”
The tradition of Hollywood heavies taking out ads to pat each other on the back began in 1977 when Steven Spielberg congratulated buddy George Lucas after Star Wars overtook Jaws at the domestic box office. It carried on from there including when Lucas later gave a shout-out to Cameron as Titanic unseated Star Wars in 1998. In 2015, Disney/Marvel and The Avengers paid tribute to Universal’s Jurassic World and its record-smashing opening weekend. Later that year, Uni returned the hat tip as Disney/Lucasfilm’s The Force Awakens rode past the dinosaurs, moving the practice to social media for the first time.