Avengers: Endgame Inches Closer to Overtaking Avatar as Highest-Grossing Movie of All Time

The biggest box-office rematch in Hollywood is back on. Avengers: Endgame will return to theaters as Avengers: Endgame Encore on September 25, 2026, giving Marvel’s juggernaut another opportunity to wrest the worldwide box-office crown from James Cameron’s Avatar. Endgame currently stands at $2,799,439,100 worldwide, while Avatar remains No. 1 with $2,923,710,708. That leaves an exact gap of $124,271,608, meaning Marvel needs roughly $125 million globally from the rerelease to move ahead.

The target is steep for a seven-year-old movie, but Encore has more than nostalgia working in its favor. This is not merely the same cut returning to multiplexes. The rerelease runs longer and includes new material designed to connect Endgame directly to December’s Avengers: Doomsday. Early demand has added fuel to the possibility of another record change. According to Global Box Office, Endgame Encore recorded the biggest presales this century for a theatrical rerelease within hours of tickets becoming available, surpassing the previous mark attributed to Titanic 3D.

Those ticket sales will not count toward Endgame’s official worldwide gross until screenings begin, but they suggest there is significant appetite to see the Avengers assemble on the big screen again.

Endgame and Avatar Have Traded the Crown Before

Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man in Avengers: Endgame | Credits: Marvel Studios

This is not Endgame’s first crack at dethroning Pandora. When the Russo brothers’ movie opened in April 2019, it posted a staggering $357.1 million domestic opening weekend before eventually reaching nearly $2.8 billion worldwide. Its theatrical return later that summer helped push it past Avatar, which had occupied the worldwide throne for nearly a decade.

James Cameron’s film eventually returned fire. A 2021 China rerelease earned $57.99 million, allowing Avatar to reclaim the global record, while another theatrical run in 2022 added $76.01 million worldwide. Its cumulative total now stands at just over $2.923 billion. That history makes Endgame’s $125 million target interesting rather than purely theoretical. Avatar has repeatedly demonstrated that major blockbusters can add meaningful sums through rereleases. However, Encore would still need to perform considerably better than either of Avatar’s two most recent major returns to erase the entire gap in one shot.

Critical reception should not be an obstacle. Endgame retains a 94% Tomatometer and 90% Popcornmeter on Rotten Tomatoes, seven years after its original release. The tougher question is whether audiences who have been able to watch Endgame at home for years are willing to pay for another three-hour theatrical visit. Marvel’s answer appears to be simple: give them something they have not seen before.

Endgame Encore Has a Doomsday Advantage

Credit:- Marvel Studios

Avengers: Endgame Encore runs 185 minutes, four minutes longer than the original 181-minute version. More importantly, the rerelease contains additional material connected to Avengers: Doomsday, which reunites directors Joe and Anthony Russo with Marvel’s flagship franchise. Joe Russo has gone considerably further than describing the added material as a disposable bonus. Speaking about Fandango, he explained:

Russo also described Endgame as “required viewing” for understanding Doomsday, while Anthony Russo emphasized that audiences watching the 2019 movie could not have anticipated where the story would eventually lead. That gives a different hook from Endgame’s 2019 theatrical return. That earlier event added supplementary material after the movie, including a Stan Lee tribute, an unfinished Professor Hulk sequence, and a preview of Spider-Man: Far From Home.

This time, Marvel is positioning the rerelease as connective tissue between two Avengers events rather than simply offering extra material around an already completed story. Marvel’s promotional campaign also promises an exclusive look at Avengers: Doomsday alongside the additional Endgame footage, with the rerelease receiving a major premium-format push. That may prove crucial. A rerelease built entirely around nostalgia would have to convince audiences to pay for something they already own or can stream. Encore instead arrives three months before Doomsday and explicitly markets itself as part of the road toward Marvel’s next giant crossover.

None of that guarantees the crown will change hands. $125 million is a target, not a forecast, and record-setting presales do not automatically translate into enough global revenue to erase a nine-figure gap. If Avengers: Endgame Encore can add roughly $125 million worldwide, Earth’s Mightiest Heroes will once again own the highest-grossing movie in history.

Avengers: Endgame Encore opens in theaters on September 25, 2026. Avengers: Doomsday follows on December 18, 2026.