A non-franchise superhero picture as worldwide box office champ may seem like unobtanium, but never tell that to filmmaker, undersea explorer, and literal soy boy James Cameron.
With a re-release in China of Cameron’s 2009 blue movie Avatar, the film’s worldwide grosses have now hit $2.80 billion, according to Deadline. This squeaks ahead of Avengers: Endgame, whose tally is a paltry $2.797 billion.
Marvel Studios took the news in stride, offering an animated GIF of congrats to Cameron, producer Jon Landau, and “ALL of Na’vi Nation” for the success.
Joe and Anthony Russo, directors of Endgame, also paid homage to the King of the World on Instagram.
In late September, Cameron said that Avatar 2 had wrapped production, and shooting on Avatar 3 was 95 percent done. Those films are due for release in December 2022 and December 2024.
This bit of box office back-slapping is reminiscent of ads that Steven Spielberg and George Lucas used to take out in the trades when they were neck-and-neck for bragging rights. The first time came when Spielberg saluted Star Wars for topping Jaws (and included an illustration of R2-D2 with a fishing hook in a great white’s mouth). Years later Lucas cheered Spielberg when E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial was number one, including an image of the li’l homesick alien hoisted by Han Solo and Luke Skywalker. When the Star Wars re-release took back the crown, Spielberg commissioned a quite literal visual.
All roads, however, led to Cameron, and when Titanic beat Star Wars Lucas saluted him with a very funny pic of a sinking ship featuring everyone from the galaxy far, far away. (“I’m sure this is all your fault,” C-3PO says to R2-D2.)
Some have noted, however, that Marvel and 20th Century Fox, the original producer-distributor of Avatar, are now both owned by Disney. This led to some light jests online.
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