James Cameron congratulates Marvel with an Iron Man and Na’vi picture after Endgame retakes the box-office crown

James Cameron has responded to Avengers: Endgame reclaiming the all-time box-office record the way he did in 2019: with a friendly nod to Marvel. IGN reports that the Avatar director shared an Instagram image of Iron Man surrounded by Na’vi, a quiet way of conceding the crown his own film held until the Endgame Encore re-release pushed Marvel back in front.

The caption quotes “You are one of the people,” and Cameron adds his own message. In it, he congratulates Marvel and the “#1 Avengers: Endgame: Encore” for bringing moviegoers to cinemas.

The margin is thin. IGN, citing Box Office Mojo, puts Endgame at $2.938 billion and Avatar at $2.923 billion, so the Marvel film leads by roughly $15 million. Neither has reached $3 billion. We covered the moment Endgame first edged ahead in our earlier report on the record change, and the lead came from the re-release, which opened with $86 million worldwide.

The two films have swapped places before. Endgame first passed Avatar in 2019, and Cameron posted a similar congratulatory message then. He also predicted Avatar would take the title back, which happened in 2021 after a re-release, as Variety reported. Since then, Avatar: The Way of Water and Avatar: Fire and Ash have come and gone without settling the question.

Marvel now has a reason to keep Endgame in the conversation. According to IGN, the Encore release added bonus footage ahead of Avengers: Doomsday in December, and Endgame landed a big opening weekend before falling sharply in its second. Cameron has more Pandora films coming too, and we’ve looked at his plan to make Avatar 4 and 5 in half the time, so a further swap isn’t off the table. IGN says whether the two will trade places again “remains to be seen.”