Avengers: Endgame surpasses Titanic at the box office

Avengers: Endgame is making history in more ways than one. Not content with resolving multiple character arcs that have built across 11 years of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), the movie is also shattering box office records.

We recently reported that the movie took $1.2 billion during its global opening weekend, the biggest of all time. And last week the movie posted the biggest UK opening weekend of all time with £43.4 million in the bank. To date the movie has grossed $2.19bn worldwide, according to figures from Box Office Mojo.

That means the movie has now swamped James Cameron's 1997 blockbuster Titanic – total gross $2.18bn, which includes $1.8bn from its initial box office run and further takings from its 2012 3D re-release.

Endgame is now the second highest-grossing movie in history, and only seeks to topple Cameron's very own Avatar to take the number one spot (unadjusted for ticket price inflation, that is).

Avatar was a phenomenon on its release in December 2009, capitalising on 3D uplift and repeat viewings to amass an enormous $2.7bn worldwide. Given Endgame is just $600m away from that threshold, we can surely expect it to do so in the next week or so, establishing itself as the reigning box office champ.

It remains to be seen whether Endgame will cross the $3bn box office threshold and establish a new benchmark for franchise success. Adjusted for ticket price inflation, 1939 Vivien Leigh/Clark Gable classic Gone With the Wind is still the most successful movie of all time, having taken a colossal $3.7bn in total.