Most films get one run on the big screen, and that’s usually that. A handful have come back, though, sometimes with new footage, sometimes with a fresh format, and sometimes just to catch a wave of renewed interest.
The four titles below all returned to theaters within ten years of their first release. Each return had a different reason behind it.
Avatar (2009 and 2010)
James Cameron’s Avatar opened in December 2009 and became a huge box office story almost immediately. Then, in August 2010, Fox sent it back into theaters as a Special Edition, only a few months after the original run had wound down.
The rerelease added roughly nine minutes of new or extended material, including extra scenes set on Pandora. The goal was partly to give fans a reason to buy a second ticket, and partly to push the film’s worldwide total even higher.
The Lion King (1994 and 2002)
Disney’s animated classic first reached theaters in June 1994 and went on to become one of the most successful animated films of its era. In December 2002, it returned in a large format IMAX release, eight years after its debut.
That version was remastered for the giant screen and included added content, among it a new musical sequence. It gave a generation of kids who’d only watched it on home video their first chance to see it in a theater.
Avengers: Endgame (2019, Twice in One Summer)
Endgame is the quickest turnaround on this list. It opened in late April 2019 and came back in late June of the same year, a gap of only about two months.
Marvel Studios added a short tribute and a bit of extra material to the rerelease. The extra run was widely understood to be aimed at closing the gap with Avatar’s all time worldwide box office record, which Endgame did pass.
Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021 and 2022)
No Way Home arrived in December 2021, at a time when theaters were still recovering from pandemic disruption. Sony brought it back in early September 2022 as The More Fun Stuff Version.
That cut added around ten minutes of extra footage and some new scenes. It stayed in theaters for a limited window, and it gave fans a different edition of a film they’d already seen less than a year earlier.
