Titanic and The Way of Water are going up against each other for 3rd spot (Picture: AFP/Getty)
James Cameron is in competition with himself after Titanic’s re-release saw it briefly replace Avatar: The Way of Water as the third highest-grossing film of all time.
The Oscar-winning film that dramatises the Titanic disaster and stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet was redistributed to mark its 25th anniversary.
That re-release saw it nudge back above Cameron’s latest release, Avatar: The Way of Water, into third place the all-time chart for highest-grossing films.
Cameron, 68, already holds the title of director of the highest-grossing film of all time, with 2009 original Avatar clear of Avengers: Endgame in second.
The Way of Water picks up after the events of the original film that saw Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) become one of the Na’vi people.
After admitting that the film would need to break $2billion (£1.65bn) globally to turn a profit, Cameron saw his new film do just that with relative ease.
Avatar reached a massive $2bn worldwide – the 3rd highest amount of all time (Picture: 20th Century Studios/Disney/PA)
And with The Way of Water still bringing in audiences around the world, Titanic’s limited release looks like it won’t enough to secure third spot for long.
For now, Titanic holds third spot with a total worldwide gross of $2.22billion (£1.83bn), while The Way of Water is inches behind on $2.21billion (£1.83bn).
They’ll both have to make up considerable ground on Avengers: Endgame, which soared to a gross total of $2.8billion (£2.31bn) back in 2019.
Titanic’s Valentine’s weekend re-release saw it jump back to 3rd, only briefly… (Picture: Sky/20th Century Studios)
To catch the unbelievable amounts of money made by the original Avatar, both films would need to make another $700million (£577m).
Completing the top five is Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which was released in 2015 and shattered box office records for the Star Wars franchise.
It made a total of $2.07billion worldwide, which ended up being considerably higher than the totals amassed by follow-ups The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker.
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Last month, Cameron became the first movie director in history to have helmed three movies that all passed the $2billion mark worldwide.
Among his other films, Terminator 2: Judgement Day was the highest-grossing film of 1991, while True Lies was the third highest-grossing film of 1994.
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Avatar from 2009 is already the highest-grossing film ever.
