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'Avengers' Surpasses 'Avatar' as Highest-Grossing Film of All Time (axios.com) 141

Posted by msmash from the whatever-it-took dept.
Disney's presentation of Marvel's "Avengers: Endgame" has officially surpassed "Avatar" to become the world's highest-grossing film of all time, several months after the film obliterated opening weekend records. From a report: The feat underscores Disney's position as the king of the box office. Disney has had the top grossing movie every year since 2012 and been the top grossing studio since 2016. Disney has reported an estimated $2,790.2 million in revenue through Sunday for "Avengers: Endgame," per Comscore. James Cameron's 2009 science fiction film "Avatar" had previously held the top spot of the highest grossing global release of all time with $2,789.7 million. Disney's success can largely be attributed to the three franchises that it has cultivated or acquired over the past few years: Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars.
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'Avengers' Surpasses 'Avatar' as Highest-Grossing Film of All Time More

'Avengers' Surpasses 'Avatar' as Highest-Grossing Film of All Time

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  • ... is depressing. "The Avengers"? Followed by "Avatar"? Humans are doomed.

    • Re:What this says about society... (Score:5, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 22, 2019 @04:34PM (#58968628)
      Yes, enjoying escapist entertainment is surely a new development and thus marks the end times approach.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by shanen ( 462549 )

        Yes, enjoying escapist entertainment is surely a new development and thus marks the end times approach.

        No, that is not what the insightful-but-badly-moderated DogDude was saying. Yet perhaps he deserves the negative mod points for excessive brevity?

        The problem is that there is no limit to the escapism whereas the real-world problems they help us to escape from are bounded. By our extinction while we ignore those problems in favor of ever grander flights of computer-enhanced fantasy.

        My approach to the topic is somewhat different. I would say that things get better, but only on the long-term average and none o

    • What this says about society...... is depressing

      Based on content alone, I don't think you can say much other than people like spectacle.

      But I think there's a positive aspect to this as well. Isn't it kind of nice that people are OK spending more than three hours in a theater watching one thing? We all thing of the trend as people having shorter and shorter attention spans, but so many people seeing these bladder-busters really makes you wonder if that is the case.

      I think it also shows that people really r

      • It was a good movie with a good message.
        The only negative was the weird time travel.

      • Re: Not in all ways... (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Avatar was the same as every preaching Hollywood movie.
        Military are mindless jarheads.
        Corporations hate the environment.
        The Enviroment is alive and just wants peace for all ceatures.
        If only 1 person with a heart stands up to....yawn

        • Avatar was the same as every preaching Hollywood movie.

          Not quite the same, what I found really disturbing was the delight the movie took in killing a bunch of poor marines who were just hired to do basic guard duty then drug into some attack on a spirit tree most of them probably did not want to do at all.

          A lot of innocents died on both sides there just so there could be some kind of plot closure.

          Not to mention how the Navi are basically mind-raping animals left and right if you think about it. Super creep

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Not when adjusted for inflation. Gone with the Wind is still the leader there, Avatar is still 2nd. Avengers is number 5 behind Star Wars and Titanic when adjusted for inflation.

    • It's because all the good films suffered so much piracy

      /s

    • ... is depressing. "The Avengers"? Followed by "Avatar"? Humans are doomed.

      Indeed. Society was so much healthier when entertainment consisted of gladiators slaying lions, witch burnings, and public hangings. But it is still better than sitcoms about two girls and a guy sharing an apartment.

    • I wish I had mod points for you bro.

  • laugh all you want, but smart money can't bet against James Cameron.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by zidium ( 2550286 )

      Holy shit! User accounts are almost to the 6M???

      • Holy shit! User accounts are almost to the 6M???

        Yes, but that doesn't necessarily mean 6million unique people. This is at least my third. I use disposable e-mail addresses and random user names so I've lost a couple of accounts and I'm sure other people have done the same thing. 6M accounts is probably made up of only 2M unique users.

        • I don't think "user accounts" is nearly as an important metric as "active users".

          /. can have 6M accounts, 2M unique users, and only 100 active user accounts.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      The right time to do Avatar 2 was on the wave behind Avatar. No one cares about the blue people any more. The movie has become a joke instead of an institution.

  • Means nothing (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Sebby ( 238625 ) on Monday July 22, 2019 @04:42PM (#58968698)

    This is all ego-boosting PR crap - of course it's gonna have made more money against a 10-year old movie, because, you know, prices have gone up since then!

    Call this news when it beats "Gone with the Wind" if revenue, properly adjusted for inflation!.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Not to mention it went back to theaters a second time with small amounts of new content.. It's sort of cheating -- kinda like they did with quantum time traveling to cheat their way out of a lot of snaps.

      • Re:Means nothing (Score:4, Funny)

        by phantomfive ( 622387 ) on Monday July 22, 2019 @05:09PM (#58968882) Journal

        It's sort of cheating -- kinda like they did with quantum time traveling to cheat their way out of a lot of snaps.

        They didn't have much choice really, it was either time travel or leave everyone dead.

        • Re:Means nothing (Score:4, Funny)

          by SqueakyMouse ( 1003426 ) on Monday July 22, 2019 @06:00PM (#58969156)
          I'd have preferred leaving them all dead. It would have saved on the budget in the spiderman sequel too, because instead of having to hire actors and waste money on cgi, you could just use a real pile of dust and leave the camera on it for 2 hours. Kids might not enjoy it as much but at least they'd learn death is final.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Not to mention it went back to theaters a second time

        Exactly what Avatar did

    • Interestingly, Endgame is actually 5th if adjusted for inflation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

      But of course, that doesn't make sensationalist headlines

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by godrik ( 1287354 )

      Yeah, it is not adjusted for inflation, but that is still a meaningful benchmark.
      No movies has passed that bar in the last 10 years. So your "of course it's gonna have made more money against a 10-year old movie, because, you know, prices have gone up since then!" fall completely flat.

      There were a bunch of other movies that were very popular in the last 10 years, and they haven't passed it either. Black Panther was very popular and it did not come close to Avatar despite the 9 year gap.

      The price of the tick

      • Gone with the wind sold 60M tickets in its initial 4 year run. The world population in 1939 was about 2.5B.
        Endgame sold over 200M ticket in 2 months. The world population is about 7.5B.

        So yeah, Endgame is actually a big deal.

        The number of people with access to a movie theater (i.e. could see the movie if they wanted) in 1939 was only a few hundred million, while today it's probably around 4-5 billion.. So Endgame is still small potatoes compared to Gone with the Wind. Probably nothing will ever dethr

    • Re:Means nothing (Score:5, Funny)

      by h33t l4x0r ( 4107715 ) on Monday July 22, 2019 @07:38PM (#58969596)
      If Gone with the Wind wants to get back in the race it needs to re-release with a new ending. Maybe a mid-credits scene where Scarlet and Rhett go for schwarma.

    • Call this news when it beats "Gone with the Wind" if revenue, properly adjusted for inflation!.

      "Avengers: Endgame" simply brings to a close the first chapters of the greater series of stories to be told within the greater Disney-Marvel Cinematic Universe. You need to look at the revenues and prospects for the MCU as a whole. Now and again someone tries to resurrect GWTW as a literary or cinematic franchise but nothing much ever comes of it.

  • Theory versus Practice (Score:5, Interesting)

    by 93 Escort Wagon ( 326346 ) on Monday July 22, 2019 @04:44PM (#58968718)

    "Disney's success can largely be attributed to the three franchises that it has cultivated or acquired over the past few years: Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars."

    In theory, Disney did acquire Pixar. Practically speaking, though, Pixar sorta took over Disney.

    • Re:Theory versus Practice (Score:5, Insightful)

      by phantomfive ( 622387 ) on Monday July 22, 2019 @05:03PM (#58968848) Journal
      Not to mention they've really messed up on Star Wars.

      • Not to mention they've really messed up on Star Wars.

        What's your definition of "messed up?" They've made billions off their purchase of Lucasfilm.

        • What's your definition of "messed up?" They've made billions off their purchase of Lucasfilm.

          They could have made even more if they didn't piss off the long-term fans. I gave up after Ep3. I did see Solo, and then Rogue One, which is good because if I'd seen Rogue One first, I probably wouldn't have watched Solo, because it was a tedious whinefest.

          • They could have made even more if they didn't piss off the long-term fans.

            Sorry to tell you, but the pool of "long term fans" who are so pissed off they've boycotted Star Wars is a rounding error.

            For every one of those there are ten fans like me - Who saw Star Wars in the theatre in 1977 thirteen times as a kid and who go to every movie and enjoy them.

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by x0 ( 32926 )

          What's your definition of "messed up?" They've made billions off their purchase of Lucasfilm.

          They haven't made billions yet. Adding up the worldwide BO revenues totals approximately $4.8B. Subtract from that the original purchase price of $4B and the production costs of ~$1B - Disney is still under the curve by about $200M.

          I don't know if the production budget Box Office Mojo includes promotional/advertising costs. That $200M might be quite low. Regardless, Disney doesn't seem to have profited off of Star Wars just yet.

          m

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        I dunno, inflation adjusted Force Awakens made $2.2bn. The original SW made $2.7bn, but it's been out for 40 years and re-released.

        Even the much-derided Last Jedi performed well enough that they gave Rian Johnson a trilogy of SW movies to come after Episode IX.

        I suppose you could mean "messed by" in terms of what the fans wanted, but in business terms SW is doing just fine.

  • Inflation adjusted (Score:5, Insightful)

    by jabuzz ( 182671 ) on Monday July 22, 2019 @04:49PM (#58968752) Homepage

    Unless the figures are at least inflation adjusted then they are meaningless. Of course a more recent film is going to gross more than an older film.

    • According to a very quick (and of course unscientific) googling, $100 in 2007 dollars is worth $123.54 in 2019 dollars. Adjusting Avatar's revenue at that inflation rate to 2019 dollars gives $3446.40 million dollars. So it looks like Endgame is still $656 million short of Avatar's adjusted revenue. 2/3 of a billion dollars isn't exactly a small difference.

      Endgame is also benefiting from online streaming revenue, which was pretty much nil in 2007 in comparison.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Quick google search: https://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/adjusted.htm

        Gone with the Wind will most likely never be broken.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Endgame isn't yet available anywhere but in cinemas.

    • And, more people can spend on movies. Asia is getting richer all the time (pin code of the world 1114)

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • the social media marketing arm of Disney was going around encouraging fans to tell their friends to see the movie again and again to make this happen.

  • Who the hell cares? Did Wendy's congratulate McDonald's for selling more fast food?

  • 100 F heat (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    What would you pay for 2.25 hours in an air-conditioned theater?

    The most over-hyped and over-rated films in history have been summer movies. A lot of it has to do with students being out of school and warm weather. The hotter the summer, but higher grossing the films are.

  • I'm sure they could pull of something spectular if given a budget equal to the collections of these 2 movies. Look up how their mars rovers cost less than what it took to produce the movie 'Gravity' if you think I am joking.

    • And it costs less to feed a poor family for weeks than you spent on buying a computer. Shame on you!

      Or we can accept that these contrasts are silly.

  • Hollywood fudging numbers (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 22, 2019 @05:54PM (#58969134)

    What Hollywood does is spin numbers to make movies seem like once in a lifetime events to draw customers. Inflation adjusted numbers are the real box office all time hits. The rest is BS marketing. Avengers is in the top five all time but doesn't seem likely to ever pass Avatar much less Gone with the Wind..

    1 Gone with the Wind $3,728,000,000
    2 Avatar $3,273,000,00
    3 Titanic $3,099,000,000
    4 Star Wars $3,061,000,000
    5 Avengers: Endgame $2,790,275,676
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_films#Highest-grossing_films_adjusted_for_inflation

    In retrospect the final Avengers movie was a bit of let down. Not terrible but just more of the same. The box off numbers were really the result of clever Marvel build up in their credit scenes of prior related franchises rather than a reflection of innovation and quality.

    IMO Avatar was a far more interesting movie. I'm more interested in seeing what technological innovation Cameron will do with the Avatar sequels than future Marvel movies at the moment. I"m mostly superheroed out. Looking for some fresh sci-fi.
    .

    And if one wants
    .

    • I"m mostly superheroed out.

      Yeah. The massive story arch and the ending to Avengers was so good, it's hard to imagine another superhero movie that can match it.

    • Adjusted for inflation divided by the number of people who can afford to go to cinema.
      How many Chinese saw Gone with the wind on release?

    • In retrospect the final Avengers movie was a bit of let down. Not terrible but just more of the same. The box off numbers were really the result of clever Marvel build up in their credit scenes of prior related franchises rather than a reflection of innovation and quality.

      IMO Avatar was a far more interesting movie. I'm more interested in seeing what technological innovation Cameron will do with the Avatar sequels than future Marvel movies at the moment. I"m mostly superheroed out. Looking for some fresh sci-fi.

      One of the best things about the Marvel Universe movies is how End Game was such a culmination of 22 movies into a finale. I mean, it has been really impressive - not only that they made that many good movies [some better than others] but that they weaved them together over time. AND the fact that you could watch and enjoy End Game without having seen all of them.

      The technology behind Avatar was groundbreaking, and the movie was great. There really is no point in comparing it to End Game. But you can't

  • And yet still comes in a far distant second to the all time King (Gone With The Wind) adjusted for inflation $3,861,930,040. 80 years at number one and even End Game can't come close to it. It's hard to imagine how big GWTW was back then and during the Great Depression too.

  • top grossing (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Doesn't mean much, since they are spending 100s of millions of dollars on movies now.

  • I'm a big Marvel movies fan, but I wouldn't pay to see Endgame twice. I really disliked what they did with Thor and they neutered The Hulk. After Infinity War, I assumed that The Hulk would get something close to a Worldbreaker Hulk matchup, but no. They even managed to retcon the character from the first Avengers' movie to make him a bumbling joke instead of a force of (un)nature.

    It's odd, but they certainly seemed to try to make a complete joke out of all of the hyper-masculine heroes (Thor, Hulk, Drax

    • It's odd, but they certainly seemed to try to make a complete joke out of all of the hyper-masculine heroes (Thor, Hulk, Drax (of course, that started in GotG I and works well)) and emphasize the loving father/husband aspects of the others (Iron Man, Captain America, Hawkeye, Ant-Man).

      The point was a true hero doesn't have the most power (look how quickly the power-loaded Captain Marvel was tossed aside).

      It wasn't about masculinity. Before, Thor and Captain America had never been truly vulnerable, always able to hide behind their powers and pose as a good guy. It was Iron Man who was weak, he didn't even have his helmet, but when the glove came, he snapped his life.

      That can be you. You and I will never be as powerful as Thor or Captain Marvel, but we can be as good as Tony Stark.

  • They cheated (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    "Disney's success can largely be attributed to the three franchises that it has cultivated or acquired over the past few years: Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars."

    For this one record, The success was because they cheated and released it a second time with extra content to get the top spot.

  • Profit (Score:3)

    by strikethree ( 811449 ) on Tuesday July 23, 2019 @09:27AM (#58971958) Journal

    'Avengers' Surpasses 'Avatar' as Highest-Grossing Film of All Time

    But Mr. Taxman, I made no profit off of it. What with all the advertising and such, we actually lost over 10 million dollars!

  • DC fans (Score:3)

    by meglon ( 1001833 ) on Tuesday July 23, 2019 @11:40PM (#58976812)
    This thread reads like a bunch of DC fans trying everything to diminish Endgames haul.

    I guess it sucks given the dominance of the MCU over the DCU... er...well... what was to be the DCU, as they've already stopped that idea. I do understand that DC is going to keep making movies... the next being Batman Returns Again, Superman Again, Batman vs Superman Again, Batman vs Martha, Superman vs. The Other Martha, Superman vs Batman, Superman Vs Batman 2, The Batman, The Superman, The Superman vs The Batman.... and Wonder Woman 1984, Aquaman 2, and maybe a Shazam 2?.... and deffinately a few more Batman and Superman reboot movies.

    The good news is, some at DC have come to the understanding that the movies people enjoy are the more lighthearted ones... like Aquaman and Shazam... the bad news is... one of the selling points of the next Suicide Squad, or should i say, the reboot of Suicide Squad is going to be... yes... it's darker. I guess you can lead a DC to make a good movie, you just can't make them learn how the fuck to make a second good movie.

    Then they canceled Swamp Thing, which is fucking amazing. Too bad they can't make movies as good as that series, the one they canceled the day after the first episode aired. Seriously, someone working with DC needs their head pulled from their ass.

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