James Cameron’s 21-year streak as the king of the box office — first with Titanic ($2.187 billion) then Avatar ($2.789 billion) — came to an end earlier this year, when Avengers: Endgame became the new highest-grossing movie ever. Rather than bemoan his blue space cats being usurped by the purple space thumb, the director was relieved when he heard the news, telling Deadline, “It gives me a lot of hope. Avengers: Endgame is demonstrable proof that people will still go to movie theaters.” That being said, Cameron hopes people go to the theaters when Avatar is re-released before the sequel comes out (the first of MANY sequels), so it can re-claim its spot on the all-time box office list:
“I think it’s a certainty,” says Cameron of Avatar eventually passing Avengers in theaters. “But let’s give Endgame their moment and let’s celebrate that people are going to the movie theater.”
Cameron doesn’t want to “sound snarky” after he congratulated Endgame, but “they beat us by one quarter of a percent. I did the math in my head while driving in this morning. I think accountants call that a rounding error.” Endgame is a good movie, but did it make you “shit yourself with your mouth wide open”? Didn’t think so. Two years from today, we’ll know if Cameron’s bold claim came true: Avatar 2 is scheduled to come out on December 17, 2021, with the Avatar re-release presumably in the weeks leading up to it.
(Via USA Today)
