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\nMarvel Studios’ AVENGERS: ENDGAME..L to R: Black Widow\/Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson), Captain America\/Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), and War Machine\/James Rhodes (Don Cheadle)..Photo: Film Frame..\u00a9Marvel Studios 2019 <\/span>
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\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nAvengers: Endgame\u00a0<\/em>shattered the bounds of realistic opening weekend predictions this weekend, with a towering $350 million domestic\u00a0and $1.2 billion in its global debut. Of note, 45% of that came from 3-D showings around the world\u00a0while $91.5 million came from IMAX (double their previous opening weekend record) and even 4DX earned $15 million globally on the title.<\/p>\n Domestically, the film earned a 2.23x multiplier (not bad considering the numbers) and snagged the biggest Thursday preview ($60 million), the biggest \u201cpure Friday\u201d ($96.7 million), the biggest single-day gross ($156.7 million on Friday counting the previews), the biggest Saturday ($109 million, down just 31% from Friday) and biggest Sunday grosses ($84.3 million) even when adjusted for inflation.<\/p>\n Speaking of Thursday previews, it earned just 17.1% of its opening weekend from Thursday alone, which was just a little more frontloaded than\u00a0Infinity War\u00a0<\/em>(15.1% of its $258 million haul). Heck, it earned $290 million this weekend WITHOUT those previews. It sold nearly\u00a039 million tickets in North America just this weekend. And yes, many of those tickets were in IMAX (the entire film was shot with IMAX cameras), Dolby, 3-D and other PLF formats.<\/p>\n Like\u00a0Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II\u00a0<\/em>before it, the series finale of the MCU saga (at least for now) shattered previous milestones set by its predecessors by playing to everyone who ever liked this series. The \u201cit all ends here\u2026 for real this time\u201d sell, coupled by general audience goodwill, strong reviews and solid word-of-mouth, brought out every remotely casual MCU fan from the last 11 years into theaters.<\/p>\n By the way, kudos to Disney and Marvel for successfully getting a huge series finale bump despite arguably selling\u00a0Avengers: Infinity War\u00a0<\/em>as the end-of-the-end last year. It was a white lie and audiences clearly didn\u2019t mind the bait-and-switch, especially as this campaign emphasized that it was merely the end for the core Avengers. Moreover, kudos to doing with a mostly spoiler-free marketing campaign.<\/p>\n We didn\u2019t even get a title until the first trailer in December of last year (a trend I\u2019m not a fan of overall, but I digress), and we got just a few theatrical trailers or extended previews after that. Most of the marketing came from the first 30 minutes or so of the movie, while there were less than ten TV spots and just one (Captain Marvel-centric) clip released online prior to release.<\/p>\n Marvel sold the hell out of the movie, but the materials they used merely told you that the movie existed and that it would mostly be about resolving the\u00a0Infinity War\u00a0<\/em>cliffhanger. Like Universal\u2019s recent campaign for Jordan Peele\u2019s\u00a0Us\u00a0<\/em>(just one trailer three months out and a Super Bowl spot along with a few TV spots), if you got it, you don\u2019t have to flaunt it. But back to the numbers\u2026<\/p>\n Avengers: Endgame<\/em>\u00a0leapfrogged over the $258 million opening weekend of\u00a0Avengers: Infinity War\u00a0<\/em>by 36%. That\u2019s almost a record too.\u00a0Batman\u00a0<\/em>($43 million in 1989) earned 45% more than\u00a0Ghostbusters II\u00a0<\/em>($29 million just one week earlier) while\u00a0Lost World\u00a0<\/em>earned 41% more ($74.6 million in 1997) than\u00a0Batman Forever\u00a0<\/em>($52.7 million in 1995). The\u00a0Jurassic Park\u00a0<\/em>sequel held that milestone for 4.5 years until\u00a0Harry Potter and the Sorcerer\u2019s Stone\u00a0<\/em>opened with $90 million in late 2001. That\u2019s a record in terms of longevity of this record, just ahead of the 4.17-year reign of\u00a0Spider-Man\u00a0<\/em>($114 million in May of 2002) before\u00a0Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man\u2019s Chest\u00a0<\/em>($135 million in July of 2006).<\/p>\n With the\u00a0Avengers\u00a0<\/em>series potentially at an end and\u00a0Star Wars\u00a0<\/em>concluding its Skywalker arc this December, I can\u2019t see anything soon that could open anywhere near as high as these numbers. Unless theatrical moviegoing enjoys a resurgence of sorts even as streaming takes its place as a dominant entertainment distribution method, whereby new-to-cinema franchises can compete at levels almost normalized by the MCU and Lucasfilm,\u00a0Avengers: Endgame\u00a0<\/em>may be the last record-breaking opening weekend for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n Also, of note, \u00a0Endgame\u00a0<\/em>opened 36% higher than\u00a0Infinity War<\/em>, which is a bigger jump than the 35% jump from\u00a0Deathly Hallows Part II\u00a0<\/em>($125 million in 2010) to\u00a0Deathly Hallows Part II\u00a0<\/em>($169 million in 2011), despite the\u00a0Harry Potter\u00a0<\/em>finale getting its first-ever 3-D conversion. That is a stunning accomplishment.<\/p>\n Where it goes from here is a good question. For the record, when your movie opens with $1.209 billion worldwide and $350 million domestic, there really are no \u201cbad\u201d post-release scenarios.<\/p>\n Even with a $1.209 billion global cume (including a record-breaking $330.5 million five-day launch in China, bigger than\u00a0Wandering Earth<\/em>\u2018s $299 million debut and $91.466 million worldwide in IMAX alone),\u00a0it would still\u00a0have to be almost as leggy as\u00a0Infinity War\u00a0<\/em>($2.048 billion from an $831 million global launch, including China which opened two weeks later) to get past\u00a0Avatar<\/em>\u2019s $2.788 billion global finish. Still, a 2.307x multiplier is absolutely possible. In order to pass\u00a0Star Wars: The Force Awakens<\/em>\u2019 $937 million domestic gross, it\u2019ll have to earn a multiplier of at least 2.67x, which is\u00a0leggier than\u00a0Avengers: Infinity War<\/em>\u2018s\u00a0($679 million from a $258 million launch)\u00a0weekend-to-finish multiplier.<\/p>\n Even if those milestones don\u2019t fall (its $42 million IMAX cume in China is already above the entire IMAX cume of\u00a0Avengers: Infinity War<\/em>),\u00a0Avengers: Endgame\u00a0<\/em>is now almost assured of taking the silver medal in North America and worldwide. A mere 2.18x multiplier in North America puts it over\u00a0Avatar<\/em>\u2019s $760 million domestic finish. And a mere 1.8x multiplier worldwide puts it just past\u00a0Titanic<\/em>\u2019s $2.187 billion (counting the 2012 3-D reissue) total. Whether it can pass\u00a0The Wandering Earth<\/em>\u2018s eventual $699 million cume and take the silver medal there (behind\u00a0Wolf Warrior 2<\/em>\u2018s $854 million total in 2017) is an opening question. But it will absolutely pass\u00a0Fate of the Furious\u00a0<\/em>($392 million) to be the biggest export ever in China.<\/p>\n Even a domestic multiplier on par with\u00a0Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II\u00a0<\/em>($381 million from a $169 million debut) gets\u00a0Endgame\u00a0<\/em>to $789\u00a0million domestic. Even\u00a0Batman v Superman\u00a0<\/em>legs worldwide ($873 million from a $423 million global launch) gets this one to $2.5 billion worldwide. Domestically,\u00a0Twilight Saga\u00a0<\/em>legs (around 2x its opening weekend) still gets the film to $700 million.<\/p>\n On one hand, conventional wisdom argues that the fan-driven \u201cend of the end\u201d sequel will be more frontloaded than its predecessor (and most of the MCU movies up to this point), and thus it doesn\u2019t have a shot in hell of catching up to\u00a0The Force Awakens\u00a0<\/em>in North America or\u00a0Avatar\u00a0<\/em>worldwide. It will indeed face a punishing deluge of demo-swiping competition starting with\u00a0Detective Pikachu\u00a0<\/em>on May 10.<\/p>\n However, if\u00a0Pikachu\u00a0<\/em>plays like\u00a0Jumanji 2\u00a0<\/em>to\u00a0The Last Jedi<\/em>, then the Pok\u00e9mon flick may go big without canceling out\u00a0Endgame<\/em>. Moreover, movies that open above $200 million tend to be at least somewhat leggy, as they tend to be popular and well-liked. In this era, when fewer films break out but those that do tend to stick around, a $350 million-opener (with an A+ Cinemascore grade) like\u00a0Avengers: Endgame\u00a0<\/em>may leg out, or at least not be as frontloaded as a\u00a0Harry Potter\u00a0<\/em>sequel or an early DC Films flick.<\/p>\n Also helping its potential legs is that, while it\u2019s three-hours long, it\u2019s arguably more kid-friendly than the gloomier and doomier\u00a0Infinity War<\/em>. No spoilers, but instead of 2.5 hours of Thanos murdering his way across the galaxy in pursuit of those infinity stones, it\u2019s the Avengers engaging in comparatively less violent action to try to undo the last film\u2019s horrific cliffhanger. And, yes, it ends very well, at least trying to present itself as the\u00a0Return of the King\u00a0<\/em>of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.<\/p>\n Even with the kids in school for the next month and no Christmas-to-New Years legs to boost its weekday figures, I\u2019m not yet comfortable presuming that it\u2019ll play like\u00a0Deathly Hallows Part II\u00a0<\/em>(or even\u00a0Captain America: Civil War<\/em>).<\/p>\n As noted yesterday, as much as we might decry the state of fictional cinema as audiences seem only willing to see the biggest movies in theaters (and the biggest movies are usually superhero flicks) and as much as this cements Disney\u2019s current infinity gauntlet-like grasps on the theatrical marketplace, this is an earned debut.<\/p>\n This wasn\u2019t (all due respect) Walt Disney buying Lucasfilm and making a direct sequel to\u00a0Return of the Jedi\u00a0<\/em>(mostly cashing in on the work done by the previous six\u00a0Star Wars\u00a0<\/em>movies) and then watching the\u00a0Star Wars\u00a0<\/em>fans roll in. It\u2019s not even Universal making a fourth\u00a0Jurassic Park\u00a0<\/em>movie 14 years after the last one and (partially) cashing in on franchise nostalgia.<\/p>\n This is the culmination of a decade\u2019s worth of good-to-great (save for a few stinkers) comic book action fantasies that did the work in making B or C-level Marvel characters into A-level movie stars. Yes, Paramount doesn\u2019t get enough credit for selling\u00a0Iron Man<\/em>,\u00a0Thor\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0Captain America\u00a0<\/em>(back when they were the undisputed kings of tentpole marketing),\u00a0<\/em>but the triumph was an ongoing one filtered through Marvel Studios no matter which distributor (Disney, Paramount, Sony or Universal) was releasing a given flick.<\/p>\n Even the worst MCU movies were (like\u00a0Harry Potter<\/em>) character plays first, action fantasies second and worldbuilding exercises a distant third. That\u2019s a big part of their success. Even the bad movies featured characters whose company you relished. And even the MCU movies I didn\u2019t care for had strong production values, narrative coherence, a stacked cast and a general meat-and-potatoes entertainment value.<\/p>\n They got the fundamentals right every time, even if a given film was lacking for one reason or another. Moreover, the folks who showed up and will show up did so not because they liked superhero movies or even because they liked Marvel Comics. They have gravitated toward the specific cinematic incarnations (Chris Evans\u2019 Captain America, Robert Downey Jr.\u2019s Iron Man, Scarlett Johansson\u2019s Black Widow, etc.) of these particular MCU characters and very much wanted to see how their story would end.<\/p>\n The franchise pulled off a win\/win, operating as a cinematic universe while also releasing crowd-pleasing films that more-or-less stood on either own even within a given franchise or the overall mythology. That sometimes meant that the big cross-over events contradicted the arcs of the stand-alone franchises, but that\u2019s comic book storytelling for you.<\/p>\n Audiences flocked to MCU movies not because of the mere idea of superhero movies or the mere idea of a cinematic universe, but because they gravitated towards these versions of these superheroes within this specific cinematic universe, safe in the knowledge that they didn\u2019t need to see all of them to enjoy the new one. You didn\u2019t need to see\u00a0Iron Man 3\u00a0<\/em>to enjoy\u00a0Guardians of the Galaxy\u00a0<\/em>and you didn\u2019t need to see\u00a0Doctor Strange\u00a0<\/em>to enjoy\u00a0Black Panther<\/em>. But this summer, everyone is seeing\u00a0Avengers:<\/em>\u00a0Endgame.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n<\/div>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t