It’s been more than a decade since James Cameron’s “Avatar” arrived in cinemas and basically destroyed nearly every record along the way. For months, the film was a must-see event that drove legions of people to theaters to sport 3D glasses and watch blue aliens fight for their planet. “Avatar” would eventually become the biggest box office hit of all time for nearly a full 10 years. That is, until “Avengers: Endgame” came and took that title. But now, it appears that the Cameron film is poised to take the record back.
READ MORE: Kate Winslet Describes James Cameron’s ‘Avatar’ Studio: “Anything Is Possible”
According to THR, the China Film Bureau has approved “Avatar” for re-release in cinemas this Friday. The film will be available in regular 3D and IMAX 3D. And if the film were able to earn a meager $7.5 million, then James Cameron’s sci-fi film will unseat the Marvel Studios blockbuster as the biggest film of all time, which currently has a worldwide gross of $2.798 billion. Of course, this could just be the first of many more re-releases where the two films duke it out for supremacy, as they are so close to each other in total earnings.
The plan for “Avatar” coming back to Chinese cinemas might be surprising to some, but way back in 2020, when the world was trying to figure out how long COVID would be an issue, the Asian country had already put into motion approving the film for a re-release. The idea being that a catalog film that is hugely popular would help revive the box office in China. Of course, as we’ve seen over the past few weekends, China’s box office seems to be doing just fine, but “Avatar” is returning either way.
Not that it really matters which corporate-funded film wins the not-at-all-real title of the biggest film of all time, but there are likely going to be a ton of fans complaining about “Avengers: Endgame” losing the distinction, just as “Avatar” fans did when the superhero epic overtook it almost two years ago. Gotta love the internet.