Avengers: Endgame is set to pass Avatar this weekend to become the highest-grossing movie of all time. The weekend take of the Disney and Marvel Studios’ sequel should push it past the record held by James Cameron’s epic of $2.7897bn (£2.23bn). Marvel chief Kevin Feige hailed the achievement at Comic-Con in San Diego on Saturday, although it was still officially $500,000 short at the time.
Disney boss Alan Horn said fans had taken the film to “historic heights”. Avengers: Endgame has not just been a success at the box office, it has also drawn widespread critical acclaim. Reviews when it was released spawned descriptions such as “glorious”, “irresistible”, “intensely satisfying” and “masterful”. Its Rotten Tomatoes reviews are over 90%. What are the numbers? On Friday, Avengers: Endgame’s global gross was $2.7892bn, half a million dollars short of Avatar, but its weekend take was always likely to push it through the barrier, as last weekend it raked in $2.8m across the world. The figures are not adjusted for inflation and Avatar would still be ahead it they were. Avengers: Endgame already had other achievements – including the biggest global opening of all time at $1.22bn when it was released in April, breaking the record of 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War. An Avengers: Endgame re-release with added footage at the end of June, and the recent release of Spider-Man: Far from Home, have helped give Endgame a box-office kick. What’s it all about? Endgame is the 22nd offering in the Marvel Studios superhero franchise and the fourth in the blockbuster Avengers series.