Everyone knew that ‘Avengers: Endgame’ would be huge, but few were confident enough to project that it would be THIS huge. The 22nd Marvel Studios flick had the best opening night ($60 million, also best Thursday preview), best Friday ($156.7M, also best single day ever), best Saturday ($109M), and best Sunday ($84.3M). Add them together, and you get the best weekend ever, with an astounding haul of $350M! At least that is the figure Disney is reporting. Some analysts speculate that once all the nickels and dimes are counted on Monday, the figure will be closer to $354.4M.
There are reports of people taking off from work on Friday, either to recover from late Thursday screenings or to see the flick in theaters on that day. 67% of attendees bought their tickets in advance, to ensure they were among the first to see it, indicating just how big an event this was– something that people made plans for ahead of time.
Other notable feats include ‘Endgame’ being the fastest film to reach $100M (17 hours), and widest release ever (4,662 theaters), with some cineplexes devoting all of their screens to this tour de force.
Critics love it, with it resting at 96% on Rotten Tomatoes. Audiences gave it a glowing A+ CinemaScore, the third A+ for a Marvel movie, after ‘Infinity War’ and ‘Black Panther’.
Bigger than that, ‘Endgame’ is the first movie to OPEN globally with over $1 billion– $1.209B to be exact. It took ‘Infinity War’ eleven days to cross the $1B line. This is Marvel’s second $1B movie of the year, following ‘Captain Marvel’, and its eighth overall.
In one weekend+, ‘Endgame’ has generated more than most major tentpoles make in their entire theatrical runs. It has also already broken even on its massive production budget of $356M, with $150M for promotion and advertising. ‘Infinity War’ was the most profitable movie of last year, and considering that ‘Endgame’ has already broken even, everything it rakes in from this point is pure profit.
This was only the second film ever shot entirely on IMAX, and it set new domestic and foreign IMAX records, earning $52.1M in the US and Canada. Globally, it earned $91.5M, 92% more than ‘The Force Awakens’.
With $400M overall, this was the highest weekend at the box office ever, besting the previous record of $314M set when ‘Infinity War’ opened. While most of this was generated by ‘Endgame’, obviously other movies were in theaters, but for comparison’s sake, ‘Endgame’ made $350M, while the #2 movie made $8M.
That #2 movie was surprisingly, ‘Captain Marvel’, Marvel Studios’ last entry, which opened almost two months ago, on March 8. It appears that fans wanted to revisit that picture (possibly as part of a larger home video Marvel marathon) before ‘Endgame’. Up to this point, ‘Captain Marvel’ was 2019’s highest-grossing movie, but that was never a status that was expected to last.
Meanwhile, Warner Brothers’ DC superhero movie, ‘Shazam!’ is still hanging in there at #5, with an additional $5.5M. The difference between the #2 and #5 movies is a scant $2.5M. The difference between #1 and #2 is $342M!
TOP FIVE
- Avengers Endgame (Disney) – $350M-$354.4M
- Captain Marvel (Disney) – $8
- The Curse of La Llorona (New Line/Warner Brothers) – $7.5M
- Breakthrough (Disney/Fox) – $6.3M
- Shazam! (New Line/Warner Brothers) – $5.5M
‘Endgame’ is expected to be front-loaded, meaning most people who wanted to see it, did so on opening weekend, not just to be among the first, but to avoid the dreaded spoilers on social media. Prior to this weekend, it was predicted that ‘Endgame’ would end its theatrical run just north of $2 billion, meaning that between now and maybe two months from now, ‘Endgame’ would only generate, possibly another billion. But considering its unprecedented opening, all bets could be off.
Next week, there are a few examples of counter-programming that will attempt to snap away some of ‘Endgame’s infinite income. Seth Rogan and Charlize Theron star in Jonathan Levine’s adult-skewing romantic comedy ‘Longshot’.
Families with kids too young for ‘Endgame’ may prefer ‘UglyDolls’, featuring the singing and speaking voices of Kelly Clarkson, Nick Jonas, Janelle Monáe, Blake Shelton, Pitbull, and more.
The African American female market is being targeted with thriller ‘The Intruder’ starring Meagan Good, Dennis Quaid, and Michael Ealy.
Meanwhile, Briarcliff Entertainment is hoping the Latinx audience turns out for gritty, low-budget superhero flick ‘El Chicano’.
Check back to see if any of these newcomers can put a dent in ‘Endgame’.
Source: Deadline
