Avengers: Endgame Shatters Records With $1.2B Global Opening Weekend

The grand finale of Marvel Studios’ so-called ‘Infinity Saga’, Avengers: Endgame, has obliterated box office records – with a $1.2 billion international opening weekend.

The previous record holder was last year’s Avengers: Infinity War, with $640 million; a number that Endgame had passed on Friday.

Domestically, the flick scored a $350 million debut weekend, $50 million ahead of even the most blue-sky estimates (and $100/$150 million ahead of conventional predictions); comfortably beating Infinity War’s $257 million record. To put that into perspective, Warner Bros.’ Shazam! has been out for three weeks, and has so far earned – in total, worldwide – $346 million.

Also, in the US, Avengers: Endgame set the record for top Thursday preview gross with $60 million, beating the 2015 record of Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ $57 million.

Endgame also rustled up a $329 million five-day bow in China. Its strict three-day opening in the Middle Kingdom earned $191 million, beating the previous record-holder Monster Hunt 2’s $187 million.

The feature, directed by Joe and Anthony Russo, is the twenty-second film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe – a franchise which started with Iron Man in 2008, and has now passed the $19 billion mark in global total lifetime grosses.

Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore, said of the numbers: “Endgame represents the culmination of a decade-long commitment of Marvel to the audience and the fans devotion to the beloved characters of the MCU. This massive and historic debut shows that by delivering consistently great movies coupled with characters inhabited by perhaps the most perfectly cast group of actors in cinematic history, Marvel has literally rewritten the rule book and in the process has made box office history.”

According to IMAX, (on whose cameras the film was shot, entirely), the film also shattered their records for ticket sales, with $91.5 million of the film’s $1.2 billion coming from IMAX cinemas alone, representing a 92% increase over the previous record-holder, Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The film also demolished single-day gross records in 28 countries; becoming the biggest single-day performer in the United States, China, Taiwan, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Korea, the UK, Brazil, Egypt, Panama, Peru, Colombia, Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Paraguay, Trinidad, Uruguay, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Greece, Portugal, Slovakia, Turkey and Ukraine.

Avengers: Endgame is in UK cinemas now, rated 12A, and stars Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Don Cheadle, Paul Rudd, Brie Larson, Karen Gillan, Danai Gurira, Bradley Cooper and Josh Brolin.