James Cameron has congratulated Marvel Studios on taking his box office crown. On Friday, October 16, the Avatar director posted a piece of artwork on X saluting Avengers: Endgame, which passed Avatar earlier this month to become the highest-grossing movie of all time again.
— James Cameron (@JimCameron) October 16, 2026
The post has no caption. The image does the talking. It shows Iron Man standing in a crowd of Na’vi on Pandora as dozens of them reach out to lay their hands on him. Across the bottom runs a line in quotes, “You are one of the People,” followed by a note signed by Cameron.
“Congratulations to Marvel and the #1 Avengers: Endgame: Encore for bringing moviegoers to the cinemas!” it reads.
Cameron’s note gives the credit to the re-release itself, and that is where the record came from. Audiences went back to theaters for a seven-year-old movie, and those tickets pushed it past his own.
How Endgame Got Back On Top
Disney brought the 2019 film back to theaters in September as Avengers Endgame: Encore, with an extended look at Avengers: Doomsday attached. The re-release opened at No. 1 and kept adding to Endgame’s lifetime total until Disney announced on October 4 that Endgame had passed Avatar, putting it at an estimated $2.9255 billion worldwide against $2.9237 billion for Avatar.
Encore has kept selling tickets since, widening the lead. We covered the numbers when Endgame passed Avatar to become the highest-grossing movie ever again.
Marvel celebrated the same day with a thank-you post to fans that ended on “We love you 3000.” Cameron’s answer took a little longer, but it came with a picture.
The Record Stays In The Family
Either way, the record stays with Disney. Avatar was released by 20th Century Fox, which Disney bought in 2019, so both of the top two films on the all-time chart now belong to the same company.
The two films have swapped places before. Endgame first passed Avatar during its original run in 2019, and an Avatar re-release put Cameron’s film back in front in 2021. This time the push came from Marvel’s side, two months before the next Avengers movie arrives.
Avengers: Doomsday, directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, opens in theaters December 18.
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