Spider-Man Box Office Is About to Sink Titanic Out of the All-Time Top Five

Where the Spider-Man box office total sits now

Above it, the chart remains Cameron-heavy. Avatar leads on $2.9 billion including re-releases, then 2019’s Avengers: Endgame on $2.79 billion, Avatar: The Way of Water on $2.33 billion and the Chinese animation Ne Zha 2 on $2.27 billion. With only $50 million between Brand New Day and Ne Zha 2, Tom Holland’s latest looks likely to vault from sixth to fourth. It is also a hair behind Endgame in the United States, which would make it the second-biggest domestic release ever.

There are asterisks in both directions. Titanic’s tally includes a $350 million re-release in 2012, and Endgame gets a re-release of its own on 25 September, which will narrow the gap at the very top again. For Sony and Marvel it is the second milestone in a matter of weeks, after Brand New Day’s earlier box office record.

An iceberg sank the real Titanic. It took the Avengers to sink my Titanic.

James Cameron’s Lightstorm Entertainment, in a social media post marking Avengers: Endgame overtaking Titanic in 2019

What happens next

Cameron has been gracious about being overtaken before, and may need the line again shortly. For cinema operators, meanwhile, it is another data point in a summer of records that already included The Odyssey’s box office run.