Marvel Studios’ “Avengers: Endgame” demolished box office records in its opening weekend to the tune of $350 million domestically, giving the movie the most successful opening weekend of all-time in the world.
Reportedly with a budget of approximately $356 million, the comic book superhero blockbuster could recoup its entire budget in its first weekend from domestic sales alone. Globally, including a simultaneous release in China, “Endgame” grossed over $850 million, giving it the top release weekend both domestically and overseas. “Avengers: Infinity War” held the previous spot for its performance in 2018, but was bested by a whopping $100 million for the 22nd film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The reviews for the three-hour and one-minute-long film have been overall very positive.
The massively successful and interconnected series of Marvel Cinematic Universe films began back in 2008 with “Iron Man,” and branched off to include such movies as “The Incredible Hulk,” “Guardians of the Galaxy,” and “Doctor Strange.”
The success of “Endgame” puts the film on pace to knock off “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” as the highest grossing film of all-time domestically, giving Disney, who also is the distributor of Marvel Studios’ films, four of the top-five spots, joining “Infinity War” and “Black Panther.” The non-Disney film on the list is “Avatar,” which was directed and produced by James Cameron in 2009. His 1997 film “Titanic” held the top spot until it was unseated by “Avatar,” which was then knocked off by “The Force Awakens” in 2015. “Avatar” and “Titanic” still hold the No. 1 and No. 2 overall spots for highest grossing worldwide releases.
Although “Endgame” draws a conclusion for some of the characters’ story lines, Marvel Studios has plans to further expand its cinematic universe with “Phase 4,” which will start after this summer’s “Spider-Man: Far From Home.” No release dates for any other upcoming films have been announced.
