James Cameron’s Avatar has reigned over Hollywood as the greatest all-time box office earner among blockbusters for an entire decade now, but Avengers: Endgame may soon take its title as the highest grossing film ever. Though it’s sitting at fifth place on the list of film’s biggest moneymakers at the moment, it has a strong chance of overtaking the competition at its current rate.

Avengers: Endgame released a week ago, and some readers may have heard about it. The MCU film has since cemented itself as Disney’s latest and greatest cultural event, with millions of theatergoers amplifying the efforts of a massive marketing push by completely saturating social media with their references, memes, and hot takes. In terms of lifetime box office revenue, Endgame is currently sandwiched between Jurassic World and none other than Avengers: Infinity War (the MCU is no stranger to this list, after all), but Screen Rant and others forecast that Endgame has the potential to unseat even Avatar from it’s 10-year reign.

According to a Bloomberg report, industry analyst Wade Holden agrees with this prediction. As it stands, Endgame has nearly reached Infiinity War’s $2 billion box office figure since its April 22 premiere, having earned $1.9 billion at the time of writing. With Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Titanic, and Avatar holding the ascending top three spots, Holden’s estimate means that Endgame will earn an additional $800 million or more before it leaves theaters in order to overtake Avatar.

James Cameron has held the top two highest box office positions for what feels like an eternity now, and unfortunately there is no questionable quantum realm time travel for market watchers to use in the real world to see if Holden’s prediction comes true before Endgame leaves theaters. Even if Endgame does succeed in surpassing Avatar, however, Cameron will have his opportunity to fire right back with Avatar 2 in 2020 - and that’s only one of three planned sequels.

Endgame’s potential to take its place as the highest grossing film in history is largely out of the filmmakers’ hands now, but it will be interesting to see if Marvel can manage to fill the immense financial void that the Avengers series is leaving on its way out. No matter how the coming box office “battle” between Disney’s Marvel and 20th Century Fox plays out, it’s doubtless that fans of each box office-shattering franchise will be the ultimate victors.

Next: Star Trek Already Did Avengers: Endgame (18 Years Ago)

Source: Bloomberg