Avengers: Endgame exploded into multiplexes this weekend to resounding acclaim and extraordinary box office returns, smashing nearly every record in the books and stunning even the most bullish of industry pundits on its way to an unbelievable $350 million opening, far surpassing the $257.6 million record held by last year’s Avengers: Infinity War and becoming the first movie in history to surpass $300 million in its opening weekend in North America. The debut represents an enormous 36% jump over Infinity War‘s already-massive debut weekend and the highest per-theater average of all time ($75K) for a film opening in wide release, easily besting Star Wars: The Force Awakens‘ previous record of $59,982.
Overseas, Endgame easily broke not only The Fate of the Furious‘s international opening-weekend record of $443.1 million but Infinity War‘s global opening weekend record of $640.5 million (which didn’t include China, where Endgame made a record $330.5 million over its first five days) with a jaw-dropping $859 million, bringing the 22nd installment in the MCU to an unprecedented $1.209 billion globally in just five days. It is the first film ever to surpass $1 billion global in its opening weekend, and the eighth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) to have crossed that threshold.
The powerhouse debut lifted the overall weekend box office to record levels–a feat accomplished by Endgame alone–and served as a remarkable finish to the most profitable franchise in cinema history.
Going into the weekend, no one questioned whether Endgame–the finale to the current cycle in the franchise–would break the all-time record. Not only is it one of the most anticipated films in history, it’s the culmination of an epic storyline that has unspooled over an unbelievable 22 films in just over a decade and redefined modern moviegoing as we know it. In truth, the episodic nature of the film series and Infinity War‘s cliffhanger ending made Endgame less like the final installment of a movie franchise than the series finale of a beloved TV show–albeit one with a mega budget that played in multiplexes as opposed to people’s living rooms.
Heading into the weekend, Endgame set a pre-sales record on Fandango, having sold five times as many tickets as Infinity War in advance of its release and selling out over 8,000 showings by Wednesday morning. Demand skyrocketed so high that many theaters added extra showings of the three-hour plus film over the weekend, with some even screening it on a 24-hour basis to accommodate the overwhelming clamor by audiences to see it right out of the gate. That helped overcome the film’s epic 181-minute running time, which would ordinarily have limited the number of screenings offered per day.
It certainly didn’t hurt that Endgame debuted on the highest number of screens ever in North America at 4,662, eclipsing Despicable Me 3‘s 4,529 (not to mention Infinity War‘s 4,474). With a 96% “Certified Fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes, reviews also surpassed those for Infinity War (which came in at 85%) and nearly every other Marvel Cinematic Universe installment aside from Black Panther, which finished just a tick higher at 97%. Audiences predictably ate it up, with Endgame receiving a perfect “A+” CinemaScore and a 92% Audience Score on Rotten Tomatoes.
More to come.
The post Studio Weekend Estimates: <em>Avengers: Endgame</em> Shatters Records On Its Way to Breathtaking $350M Domestic, $1.209B Global Debut appeared first on Boxoffice.
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