Stephen Lang expects Avatar 2 to top Avengers: Endgame at the box office

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

It took nearly a decade for it to happen but AVENGERS: ENDGAME did what some thought was impossible when it topped 2009's AVATAR as the highest grossing film of all-time at the global box office. It was a victory that had many Marvel fans throwing victory parties but actor Stephen Lang, who played Colonel Quaritch in AVATAR & who will be returning for the sequel, believes that James Cameron's long-awaited follow up will take back its title as king of the worldwide box office.

Lang's answer was short in sweet but in a recent interview with "The National", the actor was asked if he thought AVATAR 2 would top AVENGERS: ENDGAME by the end of its run and Lang simply said "I expect so." It's a pretty conifident statement and judging how AVATAR performed when it as released, he has a reason to believe it could, even though the box office climate has changed considerably since the film began its run back in 2009.

AVATAR defied most box office expectations when the film opened to $77 million in December of 2009. The film spent several weekends at number one and legged it out all the way through the summer of 2010, although part of that was due to a re-release. By the time it was all said and done, AVATAR grossed $2.79 billion worldwide and it was a total that appeared could never be touched again by any other film.

STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS looked like it could be the one to do it back in 2015 when its domestic total of $936.6 million topped the domestic earnings of AVATAR ($760.5 million), making it the highest-grossing film of all-time at the domestic box office. The worldwide total is what came up short for THE FORCE AWAKENS which tapped out with a little over $2 billion globally. 

Then The Avengers assembled in last years superhero extravaganza, AVENGERS: ENDGAME which was a culmination of more than a decade of interconnected cinematic storytelling. To call it a true moment in pop culture history would be a vast understatement and that point was driven home the film claimed the opening weekend record with a staggering $357.1 million. From that weekend on, it felt like the fans had their eyes on the weekly box office and they felt determined to give ENDGAME the edge over AVATAR. The first victory came when ENDGAME topped the domestic take AVATAR with $858.3 million and the winning shot came as Marvel was set to present in Hall H at Comic-Con last year when it was announced that the film topped AVATAR at the worldwide box office. At $2.8 billion, and pushed ahead by a re-release of its own, the film took the record by a hair but the prize was won nonetheless.

Sequels can perform better than their predecessors so there's no reason to believe that AVATAR 2 won't put up great numbers but things have changed a lot since 2009 and that's a lot of pressure on a film to expect it to clear $2.8 billion globally, especially given the long wait between films. AVATAR 2 doesn't hit screens until December 17, 2021 and one has to wonder how interested moviegoers will be in the sequel by then. 

You know who the real winner is here? Disney! They have stake in AVENGERS and the AVATAR franchise so I guess you have nothing to lose when you're competing with yourself. They'll continue to milk this for all of its worth because more AVATAR sequels are dated for December 22, 2023, December 19, 2025, and December 17, 2027.

Do YOU think AVATAR 2 has a shot at topping AVENGERS: ENDGAME at the box office?