‘Avengers: Endgame’
The 22nd film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise and the finale to the Avengers saga is smashing box office records in Australia and around the world.
Directed by Joe and Anthony Russo, Avengers: Endgame racked up $10.27 million on Wednesday and $9.87 million on a mammoth 1,070 screens yesterday, according to Numero.
The Wednesday figure was the highest single day of all time, 8 per cent up on Star Wars: The Force Awakens , which opened on a Thursday, and 17 per cent bigger than Avengers: Infinity War, which bowed on a Wednesday.
Wednesday also marked the market’s biggest single day in history with $11.46 million, beating last year’s ANZAC Day peak of $11.3 million. The film’s Thursday haul was a record for that day.
The sequel clocked an unprecedented $18 million in pre-sales, $4 million more than for JJ Abrams’ sci-fi epic.
So the movie produced by Kevin Feige and scripted by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely will eclipse Star Wars’ record $27.2 million first weekend and the previous Avengers’ $21.2 million.
The finale is sure to beat the predecessor’s $61.9 million lifetime total. Star Wars: The Force Awakens finished with $94 million and Avatar remains the all-time champ with $115.7 million.
Exhibitors were thrilled. “We haven’t seen so many sellout sessions, and so early in the day, since The Force Awakens,” Majestic Cinemas CEO Kieren Dell tells IF.
“If Avengers: Endgame performs at the same pace as Infinity War did last year, given the huge opening, it would be on track to just pip The Force Awakens over its season.
“This will depend on how much of the business was moved upfront by the huge anticipation, and how much competition there is in the first half of May from other titles such as Pokemon. But at the moment we are hopeful it will have great legs given the positive feedback from customers and the great reviews.”
Disney launched the action adventure starring Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson, Chris Hemsworth, Anthony Mackie, Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olsen and Chadwick Boseman in 25 markets internationally, amassing $US169 million and shattering industry single day records in 11 markets.
In US dollars China led the way with $107.5 million including midnight screenings, followed by Korea’s $8.4 million, Australia’s $7 million, France’s $6 million, Italy’s $5.8 million and Germany’s $5.6 million.
Ahead of its 6 pm launch in the US ticket agency Fandango ranked the title as the biggest pre-seller of all time with 8,000 sessions sold out coast to coast.
Pundits are predicting a US opening weekend of as much as $260 million, which would beat the current record held by Avengers: Infinity War with $257.7 million.
Estimates for the international total this weekend go as high as $680 million, which would obliterate the record set by Universal’s The Fate of the Furious, which bowed everywhere save Japan in mid-April 2017 with $433.2 million.