Re-releases have twice decided which film counts as the highest-grossing ever

Avengers: Endgame is the highest-grossing film of all time again, at $2.9255 billion worldwide as of Oct. 4, about $1.8 million ahead of Avatar's $2.9237 billion. It got there with "Avengers: Endgame Encore," a re-release that opened Sept. 25 and added about $126 million, and the pass was reported on Oct. 4.

Endgame led on original runs all along

On original theatrical runs alone, Endgame earned $2.799 billion and Avatar $2.744 billion, a gap of $55.9 million. Endgame first passed Avatar in July 2019, Avatar went back on top in 2021 after a re-release in China that earned $58 million, and this month's Encore reversed it again, so re-releases have now settled the top spot twice in five years.

How much each film owes to re-releases

The green bars in the chart are re-release dollars. Titanic has the most, $421.4 million of its $2.265 billion, or 18.6%, mostly from its 2012 3D release ($350.4 million) and its 2023 25th-anniversary run ($70.2 million). On its original run alone Titanic would rank 10th instead of fifth. Avatar's re-releases add $180.1 million, or 6.2%, and Endgame's add 4.3%, while every other film in the top 10 gets less than 1% from re-releases.

Both films belong to the same company

Disney released Endgame and has owned Avatar since it bought 21st Century Fox in 2019, so the title is moving between two of its own films. The Encore opened to $26.1 million in the U.S. and Canada, fell 81% in its second weekend and had $37.7 million domestically through Oct. 8.

What the rankings leave out

These are nominal dollars, not adjusted for inflation or ticket prices, which have risen since Titanic's 1997 release, so the list favors recent films. Sources also disagree on Ne Zha 2, which Box Office Mojo puts at $2.26 billion (sixth) and The Numbers at $2.00 billion (eighth).

What's next

Spider-Man: Brand New Day, released July 31, is third at $2.51 billion and still in theaters, but it would need about $420 million more to reach the top two.

How we counted: worldwide grosses from Box Office Mojo title pages, split into the "Original Release" group and all later releases, fetched Oct. 10, 2026. Endgame's total is the $2.9255 billion reported Oct. 4. Spider-Man: Brand New Day is from The Numbers.