10 Insane Movie Box-Office Records That Will Probably Never Be Broken

Current Record Holder: Avatar ($2,787,965,087)

The current worldwide box-office champ, James Cameron's CGI-heavy fantasy adventure has accumulated a total of $2.7 billion over the course of its initial theatrical run and a brief, limited re-release a few months later.

It was the first movie to ever gross more than $2 billion worldwide, and at the time, was the only movie to do so, before being joined by Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Cameron's Oscar-darling Titanic, which was also helped along by a re-release.

And ultimately, it's The Force Awakens' failure to usurp Avatar from the king's throne that makes this record seem nigh-on impossible to overtake.

2015's Star Wars continuation was, arguably, the most anticipated film in the history of cinema, and it fell short of Avatar by over $700 million - or, for comparison, Captain America: The Winter Soldier's entire box-office run.

So if Star Wars can't do it... what can? The MCU's biggest earner is The Avengers with $1.5 billion so it seems unlikely that any movie from that franchise can do it, and while The Last Jedi may turn out to be a better film than its predecessor, it's virtually impossible for that buzz to translate to a $700 million dollar advantage.

Avatar is due a handful of sequels, but given how long the franchise has been dormant (and the fact that the original debuted when Star Wars was absent and superhero movies were far less prolific) it will almost certainly not beat out the original.