Avatar re-release in China spells doom for Avengers: Endgame box office record

Who knew the Chinese loved the blue-skinned Na’vi so much?

After a long year of battling the pandemic, daily life is going back to normal for China. So when it was announced that their favourite Hollywood blockbuster is being re-released on March 12, it was expected that the box office will have a new highest global box office grossing movie. 

When Avatar first released in 2009, it took China by storm. The movie was one of the first Hollywood blockbusters to become a big hit in China. The country of 1.4 billion inhabitants made a total of $202.6 million for the sci-fi action movie. 

It held the highest-grossed movie in the world for a whole decade. Then, Thanos arrived. Avengers: Endgame nicked the spot after being released in 2019.

This didn’t demoralise the creators of Avatar though, since there was only a $7.4 million gap in between them. It would only take about a million citizens to catch up to the Hollywood giant if everyone got their tickets at US$7 (S$9.40) (the average price of an online booking in China). 

Even though the franchise had not much grip on China’s pop culture, the re-release could just be a refresher for James Cameron’s second film for the series. The film is currently supposed to release on Dec 17, 2021, an exact 13 years after the original.