Avengers Endgame box office CLOSES in on Avatar record after holding off Detective Pikachu

The Marvel epic is just over $300 million away from topping Avatar and becoming the highest-grossing movie of all time. Avengers Endgame enjoyed its third week as box office No 1 this weekend, bringing its total worldwide gross to $2.485 billion. Analysts wondered if Ryan Reynolds’ Detective Pikachu could push Endgame to No 2, but the Marvel movie managed to hold off the Pokémon domestically. Detective Pikachu opened with $58 million in the US but failed to catch all of the audience, with Endgame taking in $63 million.

Avengers Endgame’s domestic total now stands at $723 million, having passed Black Panther and Infinity War.

While Avatar’s US total is $760 million, but the overall winner there is Star Wars The Force Awakens with $936 million.

Meanwhile, director James Cameron has already congratulated Avengers Endgame for sinking Titanic’s record.

He wrote: “To Kevin [Feige] and everybody at Marvel, an iceberg sank the real Titanic.”

Cameron continued: “It took the Avengers to sink my Titanic.

“Everyone here at Lightstorm Entertainment salutes your amazing achievement.

“You’ve shown that the movie industry is not only alive and well, it’s bigger than ever!”

No doubt Cameron will be sharing a similar message for when Avengers Endgame inevitably beats his Avatar all-time record.

Despite the praise here, Cameron has been critical of MCU movies in the past.

Just before Avengers Infinity War hit cinemas last year, the filmmaker said: “I’m hoping we’ll start getting Avenger fatigue here pretty soon.

“It’s just, come on guys, there are other stories to tell besides hypergonadal males [men who produce too much testosterone] without families doing death-defying things for two hours and wrecking cities in the process. It’s like, oy!” Not that I don’t love the (Avengers) movies.”

The director is currently working on four Avatar sequels which will release between 2021 and 2027.