Younger generations won’t even realize the original Avatar wasn’t a Disney movie to begin with, and most people who are old enough to remember won’t care.
Even if the original Avatar was still the highest grossing movie ever by then, does it matter?
I have to say I find this a little surprising, while the bragging rights associated with breaking the record are obvious, and more money is always welcome,especially in a publicly traded company, is it really that big a deal?
Disney now owns the Avatar franchise and in 20 years after Disney has released the planned four sequels, and then probably supplemented that with a Disney+ animated series, an expansion to the Disney’s Animal Kingdom theme park, and then added a new spinoff film series that starts the whole thing over again, the brand will clearly be a Disney property.