By Kayla Hoang, Staff Writer
As Avengers: Endgame continues to climb up the box office, many are predicting that the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) superhero blockbuster has a chance at surpassing Avatar’s box office gross, making it the highest grossing film ever made.
The Marvel film, released 2019, is the fastest movie to reach one billion dollars in box office gross, taking approximately five days to reach that amount, and it quickly became the highest grossing film of 2019. Currently, the movie is the second-highest grossing film of all time, closing in on the record-holder, James Cameron’s Avatar from 2009.
Endgame is certainly going on the right track, but even if it surpasses Avatar’s box office gross of approximately $2.8 billion, it might not necessarily be enough to truly beat the James Cameron film.
For one thing, inflation hasn’t been taken into account yet for Avatar. The James Cameron film earned about $2.8 billion in box office revenue in 2009, while Endgame currently has about $2.6 billion in the box office, still climbing.
Considering Avatar was released ten years ago, box office inflation would realistically put Avatar as far as past the $3 billion mark, a much harder feat for Endgame to surpass.
It’s also worth mentioning that Endgame had plenty of help to reach its height in theatres, help in the form of the 22 Marvel films that came before it. Since Iron Man released in 2008, the Marvel Cinematic Universe had been building its fanbase up to Endgame for 11 years. The constant trailers, TV spots, and fan service from the cast and crew heightened audience excitement.
Meanwhile, Avatar is a stand-alone film. There is talk of the movie getting a few sequels in the coming years, but the 2009 blockbuster didn’t benefit from any of the build-up and hype in comparison to the Avengers film.
And we haven’t even gotten into how much of a landmark Avatar is in filmmaking history. Its masterful use of the then-brand new 3-D and CGI technology revolutionized the film industry. Their rendering of the Na’vi looked stunningly realistic and still outdoes much of the CGI that is used in today’s movies (we’re looking at you, Aladdin).
With the onslaught of summer blockbusters hitting the big screen (John Wick 3 and Detective Pikachu, to name a couple), it’s going to get harder for Endgame to keep up.
Though Endgame still has a decently high chance of dethroning Avatar as the number one grossing film in the world, the long reign and accomplishments of Avatar would make it hard for any movie blockbuster, no matter how anticipated, to truly beat its legacy.
