Over the weekend, Avatar: The Way of Water added another $25.3 million to its gigantic worldwide haul. That brings its total to a whopping $2.214 billion. James Cameron’s latest also would have crossed yet another milestone off its list, overtaking the third highest-grossing movie ever, i.e., James Cameron’s Titanic. And that’s what it would have done had it not been for…Titanic.
As per The Hollywood Reporter, Cameron’s 1997 monster hit — the highest-grossing movie ever made until Cameron’s Avatar unseated over a decade later — was reissued for Valentine’s Day. It only grossed $22.3 million worldwide ($6.4 million in North America), but that was enough to stave off Avatar 2 for just a little while longer. Titanic’s historical worldwide total now stands at $2.217 billion, up from the $2.194 billion it had before. It managed to make some extra money despite the emergence of a wacko conspiracy theory that the sinking of the ship never happened.
Yep, that means had Titanic not been reissued then Avatar 2 would sit in its place as the third highest-grossing movie ever made. For now it has to settle for fourth. It will surely take its spot in the next couple days, but already three of the top four biggest moneymakers (not adjusted for inflation) belong to James Cameron, a filmmaker who once thought his latest film wouldn’t make that much scratch.
(Via THR)