Avengers: Endgame becomes the highest-grossing film in history again — Fortune
“Avengers: Endgame” has once again become the highest-grossing film in the history of the global box office after returning to cinemas. The “Avengers: Endgame Encore” re-release, which Disney and Marvel Studios released on September 25, grossed about $126 million worldwide and brought the film’s cumulative box office total to $2.9255 billion, Fortune reports.
Thus, “Endgame” surpassed James Cameron’s “Avatar,” whose total box office gross stands at $2.9237 billion. The Marvel film first topped the ranking in 2019, but lost the lead in 2021 after “Avatar” was re-released in China.
Success of the re-release
The updated version of the blockbuster includes several minutes of material previewing “Avengers: Doomsday,” as well as an introduction by Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans. During its first weekend, “Encore” earned $26 million in the domestic market and $86 million worldwide. This is the third-best opening among re-releases in the domestic market, after the 1997 special edition of “Star Wars” and the 2011 3D re-release of “The Lion King.”
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In its second week, domestic ticket sales fell by more than 80%, but the film added another $18.8 million at the worldwide box office. According to box-office analyst David A. Gross, re-releases rarely earn more than $10 million. “Endgame” has been available for streaming for several years, yet it still outperformed a number of new releases.
Franchises and box office
Fortune notes that “Endgame’s” result demonstrates the lasting commercial potential of well-known film franchises. In 2019, nine films grossed more than $1 billion worldwide, and all of them were sequels, remakes, or spinoffs of already established franchises and other intellectual property.
At the same time, Marvel has shown weaker results after “Endgame”: from 2020 through this summer, only “Spider-Man: No Way Home” and “Deadpool & Wolverine” surpassed the $1 billion mark. In 2025, “Captain America: Brave New World,” “Thunderbolts,” and “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” collectively grossed about $1.3 billion — less than half of “Endgame’s” box office.
