‘Avengers: Endgame’ Is Closing In on the All-Time Box Office Crown, and It’s Closer Than Ever

Seven years after its original release, ‘Avengers: Endgame‘ refuses to stay quietly in the record books. Marvel’s 2019 crossover event already made history once, briefly becoming the highest-grossing film of all time before losing that title back to ‘Avatar,’ and now the film is once again inching toward the top of the all-time chart.

That story traces back to April 2019, when ‘Endgame’ shattered box office records almost immediately, becoming the first film ever to surpass $1 billion globally within its opening weekend, a stunning $1.2 billion haul across just five days in theaters. By that summer, the film had climbed past ‘Avatar’s’ decade-long reign to become the biggest movie ever made, crossing the finish line by a razor-thin $500,000 margin over James Cameron’s sci-fi epic.

‘Avatar’ eventually reclaimed the crown through its own theatrical re-releases, leaving ‘Endgame’ sitting in second place on the all-time worldwide chart. But new figures show just how close the gap has become again: ‘Endgame’ now sits only $500,000 away from reaching $2.8 billion worldwide, needs just $42 million more to cross $900 million domestically, is $59 million shy of hitting $2 billion internationally, and stands a mere $125 million away from reclaiming the title of the biggest movie in history.

That renewed push comes just as Marvel prepares to send the film back into theaters. ‘Avengers: Endgame: Encore’ is set to hit theaters September 25 with new footage tied directly into December’s ‘Avengers: Doomsday,’ giving the film a fresh opportunity to add to its already staggering totals. Co-director Joe Russo has described the rerelease as more than a nostalgia play, telling Deadline it creates “a bridge from Endgame to Doomsday in a very unique way,” made possible specifically because the film’s original success left room for another theatrical run.

Early indications suggest that bridge is generating serious demand. Reports indicate ‘Endgame Encore’ reached the biggest pre-sales this century for any theatrical rerelease within just a few hours of tickets going live, putting the film in strong position to close that remaining $125 million gap without much difficulty.

Whether ‘Endgame’ can go even further and chase a genuinely unprecedented $3 billion worldwide total remains a bigger question mark, though the current momentum suggests reclaiming the all-time record is very much within reach.

The film’s box office resilience is notable given how competitive the theatrical landscape has become since 2019. Marvel’s own ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ recently posted a $360 million domestic opening weekend, narrowly surpassing ‘Endgame’s’ previous domestic opening record of $357 million, while low-budget horror hits like ‘Obsession’ have managed to out-earn ‘Endgame’ on specific single-day box office comparisons throughout this year, underscoring just how much the industry has shifted even as ‘Endgame’ itself keeps climbing.

None of that has slowed ‘Endgame’s’ march back toward the top spot, and with ‘Encore’ poised to add fresh worldwide grosses on top of an already massive total, Marvel appears set to reclaim a record it briefly held seven years ago.

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