Avengers: Endgame is again the highest-grossing film in worldwide box-office history, according to The Walt Disney Company, which says the Marvel finale has moved ahead of Avatar following the recent Avengers Endgame: Encore theatrical rerelease. Disney puts the films at an estimated $2.9255 billion and $2.9237 billion, respectively—a difference of about $1.8 million.
The change restores a title with unusual symbolic weight to Marvel’s 2019 event film and illustrates how a targeted rerelease can still reshape even the most settled-looking theatrical rankings. It also arrives during Disney’s buildup to Avengers: Doomsday, which the company has scheduled for theaters on Dec. 18, 2026.
A narrow lead built on an encore run
Disney announced the new ranking on Oct. 4 in an official company release. Both films sit within Disney’s studio portfolio: Endgame came from Marvel Studios, while Avatar was released by 20th Century Studios. The figures are company-reported estimates, rather than an inflation-adjusted measure of attendance or a count of tickets sold.
That distinction frames the scale of the result. A $1.8 million separation is roughly 0.06% of Endgame’s stated $2.9255 billion total. At this altitude, the two titles are effectively separated by the kind of revenue a single international market, a weekend of holdover sales or another rerelease can influence. The official figures establish the current nominal-revenue order, but their closeness leaves the ranking inherently susceptible to future theatrical activity.
Endgame: Encore returned the film to theaters on Sept. 25. An Associated Press box-office report, carried by ESPN 690, said the release opened at No. 1 domestically with an estimated $26 million and took in another estimated $60 million overseas. Those components produce an $86 million estimated global opening weekend, reconciling the aggregate figure later cited in follow-up coverage.
The rerelease was not simply a standard return engagement. AP reported that it included new end-credits scenes and a fan-thank-you introduction from Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans. Those additions gave audiences an incentive beyond seeing the film again in a theater, while remaining connected to the performers most associated with its central characters.
What is confirmed—and what is not
The record claim rests on Disney’s estimates, and the company is the most direct available authority for the totals it has announced. Still, the numbers should be read as estimates, as Disney labels them, rather than as independently audited final tallies. The reported comparison is also strictly about worldwide gross revenue in nominal dollars; it does not settle which film sold more admissions after accounting for inflation, ticket pricing or market-by-market differences.
A ComingSoon report corroborated Disney’s new worldwide totals and said the rerelease added $4.4 million domestically and $14.4 million internationally in its second week. That would amount to $18.8 million for that period, well below the opening weekend but still meaningful when the top-two all-time gap is only $1.8 million.
ComingSoon also described Doomsday footage as part of the Encore package and said the length of bonus material varied between theaters. Those specific details were not confirmed in Disney’s announcement or the AP report, which independently verified the end-credits material and actor introduction. The available reporting therefore supports the broader conclusion that the rerelease carried new material, while leaving the precise form and consistency of any Doomsday preview less certain.
A Marvel milestone with a sequel-era purpose
Endgame originally arrived in April 2019 as the culmination of Marvel Studios’ Infinity Saga. Its return has supplied Disney with both a box-office event and a reminder of the franchise’s ability to turn a legacy title into a fresh theatrical draw. In the company’s announcement, filmmaker Anthony Russo linked work on Doomsday to the need to continue from where Endgame left off.
The Encore campaign therefore functions on two tracks: it has added revenue to a seven-year-old film and renewed the visibility of a franchise heading toward its next major ensemble chapter. The opening weekend’s estimated $86 million was the key commercial jolt; the much smaller second-week total reported by ComingSoon shows the familiar front-loaded shape of a fan-driven event rerelease.
For now, the headline number belongs to Endgame: an estimated $2.9255 billion worldwide, ahead of Avatar’s estimated $2.9237 billion. With the margin so slim, the all-time crown remains less a permanent endpoint than a live theatrical benchmark—one that Disney has now used to bridge Marvel’s last climax and its next one.