'Avatar' Reclaims Highest-Grossing Film Title

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James Cameron‘s 2009 film Avatar has once again become the highest-grossing film ever, reclaiming its crown from Marvel‘s 2019 blockbuster Avengers: Endgame.

Avatar‘s move up in rankings is thanks to its return to cinemas in China, where most theaters have reopened but lack new titles due to the overall global pandemic’s effect on the movie industry. Launching on Friday evening, the CG-heavy film, which featured revolutionary technology at the time of its original premiere, had already made $8.9 million USD by Saturday, bridging it over the $8 million USD gap previously in favor of Marvel’s superhero picture. According to Deadline, this rerelease of Avatar is expected to rake in up to $58 million USD, pushing its all-time sales over $2.8 billion USD.

“We are proud to reach this great milestone, but Jim and I are most thrilled that the film is back in theaters during these unprecedented times, and we want to thank our Chinese fans for their support,” said Avatar producer Jon Landau. “We are hard at work on the next Avatar films and look forward to sharing the continuation of this epic story for years to come.”

In a gesture of good will, Marvel also posted on Twitter celebrating Cameron’s monumental achievement as well as “ALL of Na’Vi Nation,” saying “We love you 3000.”