Avatar is once again the highest-grossing movie of all time after knocking Marvel's Avengers: Endgame off the top spot.
James Cameron's 2009 film returned to Chinese theaters on Friday for a full-scale nationwide release in both Imax 3D and ordinary 3D, and has already earned in enough to restore its crown as the top-grossing global blockbuster (not adjusted for inflation), pushing Marvel's Infinity Saga finale back into second place in the process.
As things stand, the sci-fi epic has amassed RMB 58 million ($8.9 million) through 5 p.m. local time on Saturday.
Now, Marvel Studios and The Russo Brothers have sent out Tweets congratulating Cameron, and the iconic director has responded.
Endgame took in a whopping $2.797 billion when it hit theaters in 2019, topping the previous record of $2.790 billion held by Avatar. This meant the movie only needed to take in just under $7.4 million to knock the superhero spectacular off the #1 podium.
As you may recall, Avatar was one of several movies China's Film Bureau requested for re-release last March when the Middle Kingdom was planning a staged reopening after (mistakenly) assuming they had a handle on the COVID-19 pandemic. However, Endgame was also on that list, and might be given another run at some point - so the battle of the box office behemoths may not be over just yet!
It's a fun rivalry, but keep in mind, Disney wins either way!