'Avengers: Endgame' Earns an Astronomical $350 Million at the Weekend Box Office, $1.2 Billion Globally -- the Biggest Opening in Movie HistoryThe weekend take is even more incredible seeing that 'Endgame' has a three-hour running time.
This story originally appeared onBusiness Insider
Disney and Marvel Studios are used to winning the weekend box office when releasing its titles, but over the past few days its latest movie has performed like no other.
Avengers: Endgame, the close of the Infinity Saga -- which focused on the formation of The Avengers and their battle with Thanos for the Infinity Stones -- took in an estimated $350 million over the weekend and a global total of $1.2 billion, making it the biggest opening weekend of all time.
It's a figure that completely destroyed the record held by the previous film in the franchise,Avengers: Infinity War($257.6 million) and is the first movie ever to cross $300 million domestically its opening weekend.
The weekend take is even more incredible seeing thatEndgamehas a three-hour running time, which major studios try to stay clear from as it means a lower number of daily movie showings at theaters. But the outcome shows how high a demand the movie was for audiences, as its performance completely changed how the industry operated to satisfy moviegoers.
Preparing for the onslaught
It goes all the way back to presales forEndgame, which were so high that it crippled the servers of many movie theater websites and led to Fandango, the leader in online movie tickets, tocreate an online "waiting room"(the first time ever attempted by the site) to handle the onslaught of ticket purchases. It resulted in the best-selling day in the history for Fandango; also Atom Tickets and other theater sites that could keep up with the demand to set records in business.
Then, leading up to this weekend, along with Disney set to putEndgameon over 4,600 screens (the most ever), AMC Theatres, the world's largest theater chain, announced that in the US it wouldopen many of its theaters for 24 hours over the weekend. Thechain also reported这部电影一个破纪录的58,000 times this weekend -- 10,000 more than the previous record held byInfinity War. (Over the weekend, AMC upped that figure to over 63,000 showtimes, leading to the chain having record-breaking attendance on Saturday of 2.6 million guests.)
But the craze forEndgamewasn't just felt in the States. Audiences internationally couldn't wait for the movie to open. In China, the second-largest movie market,Endgametook in over $107 million its opening dayin the Middle Kingdom. That's the best single-day performance ever for a Hollywood release in China. (The movie also had the biggest 3D opening of all-time, with 45% of the movie's global tally generated from 3D ticket sales.)
"We're in the Endgame now"
Back in the US,Endgamegave a glimpse at what was in store for the weekend by taking in arecord-breaking $60 million in Thursday previewshowings, crushing previous record-holderStar Wars: The Force Awakens($57 million). The movie followed that with a $156.7 million Friday (counting Thursday previews), the biggest single-day performance for a movie ever (passing $119 million byForce Awakens).
On Saturday, the movie brought in $109 million, another record beating the$82.1 million byInfinity Warfor the best second-day opening. And if you take away the Thursday preview figureEndgamehad, the movie performed better on Saturday than it did its opening night.
Though earlier in the week there was doubt by some in the industry thatEndgame, with a three-hour run time, could hit the rarified air of a $300 million opening, it turned out the movie hit the mark and powered through, coming in with an estimated $350 million. It's a figure that's over $92 million more than the $257.6 million last year byInfinity War, the previous record holder.
And here's another way to put the weekendEndgamehad in perspective: the movie took in more domestically than the best weekend even for the industry in North America, which was the$314 million take last summer, the weekendInfinity Waropened.
Internationally, the movie took in over $850 million, the biggest opening weekend ever. And in China it brought in $330.5 million, giving the movie a $1.2 billion global total. Another record.
The 2019 box office now looks brighter
Endgamedidn't just help business for movie ticket sites and theaters but also IMAX, which had a record-breaking weekend.
The movie was shot on IMAX cameras, so many fans wanted to see the movie on the large-format screen. By Friday, the movie had already broken IMAX's record for best weekend ever with a global $52.1 million take (the previous record was held byThe Force Awakenswith $47.6 million). By the end of the weekend, it took in $91.5 million.
That's just one example of how the historic performance byEndgamehas pushed the struggling 2019 box office on the right track.
The first quarter at the domestic box office was down over 16% compared to last year, butEndgamehas single-handedly improved things, which can only get better with astrong slate of titles coming this summerand the final movie in theStar WarsSkywalker saga,The Rise of Skywalker, coming at the end of the year.
The fact is that the current box office era lives and dies on the performance of Disney releases. Before this weekend, it wasCaptain Marvelthat was the top earner at the box office in 2019 and going forward, along withStar Wars, its movies likeThe Lion King,Toy Story 4, andFrozen IIthat are going to motivate huge audiences to the multiplex.
But the performance byEndgameis astounding. With the movie'sreported $356 million production budget(not counting the hundreds of millions in advertising), by the time official numbers come in on Monday Disney/Marvel Studios could already have broken even on the movie. It's a feat that is mind boggling for a big Hollywood blockbuster. Industry folks were astonished whenInfinity Waronly needed 10 days to get in the black.
