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'Avengers: Endgame' Shatters Box Office Records (usatoday.com) 236

Posted by EditorDavid from the make-mine-Marvel dept.
Avengers: Endgame has already earned more money in just five days than 17 of the 21 previous films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe did in their entire theatrical run (including Captain Marvel). The Wrap reports that it's the first time in history a movie has earned over a billion dollars in just its first weekend.

It demolished the record $640,521,291 global box office opening for the previous Avengers movie, Infinity Wars, in 2018. This weekend the sequel earned $1,209,000,000, with both Avengers films earning more than the next-biggest-opening films The Fate of the Furious and Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

In fact, "In one fell swoop, Avengers: Endgame has already made more than movies like Skyfall, Aquaman and The Dark Knight Rises grossed in their entire runs, not accounting for inflation," reports USA Today: To accommodate demand, Disney released Avengers: Endgame in more theaters (4,662 in the U.S. and Canada) than any opening before. Advance ticketing services set new records. Early ticket buyers crashed AMC's website. And starting Thursday, some theaters even stayed open 72 hours straight. "We've got some really tired staff," says John Fithian, president and chief executive of the National Association of Theater Owners. "I talked to an exhibitor in Kansas who said, 'I've never sold out a 7 a.m. show on Saturday morning before,' and they were doing it all across their circuit."

Not working in the film's favor was its lengthy three-hour running time. But theaters added thousands of showings for Endgame to get it on more screens than any movie before to satiate the frenzy.

For an industry dogged by uncertainty over the growing role of streaming, the weekend was a mammoth display of the movie theater's lucrative potency. Fithian calls it possibly "the most significant moment in the modern history of the movie business.... We're looking at more than 30 million American and more than 100 million global guests that experienced Endgame on the big screen in one weekend," Fithian says. "The numbers are just staggering...."

Disney now holds all but one of the top 12 box-office openings of all time. (Universal's Jurassic World is the lone exception...) After its acquisition of 20th Century Fox, Disney is expected to account for at least 40% of domestic box-office revenue in 2019, a new record of market share... The company's Captain Marvel -- positioned as a kind of Marvel lead-in to Endgame -- rose to No. 2 in its eighth weekend in theaters.
Comscore reports that the movie accounted for 88% of all ticket sales this weekend -- and that the total weekend box office of $400 million was the largest ever. Theatre owners hope this will also mean more ticket sales in the future, with millions of moviegoers exposed to trailers for upcoming films. And whatever happens, "This has got to be the biggest weekend in popcorn history," a senior media analyst for Comscore told USA Today.

"Think of the gallons of soda and the hot dogs sold!"
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'Avengers: Endgame' Shatters Box Office Records More

'Avengers: Endgame' Shatters Box Office Records

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  • skip the soda... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Geoffrey.landis ( 926948 ) on Sunday April 28, 2019 @05:42PM (#58506602) Homepage

    ""Think of the gallons of soda and the hot dogs sold!"

    Zero gallons of soda, at least, not to the people who knew the 3-hour run time,

  • when the good seats at the real IMAX in NYC clear up. not paying $25 a ticket to sit on the edge

  • Had to be said... (Score:3)

    by madmarcel ( 610409 ) on Sunday April 28, 2019 @05:46PM (#58506614)
    I, for one, welcome our new Disney overlords.

  • Probably as bland as every "record-selling" media (Score:3, Informative)

    by ffkom ( 3519199 ) on Sunday April 28, 2019 @05:48PM (#58506622)
    Extrapolating from previous super-hero movies and "record setters" in other media (like "Gangnam Style" or the "T-Series" channel") this is most probably a very bland, very average piece of entertainment, without anything original or uniquely new.
    I will happily leave it to others to pay their record sales.

    • Re:Probably as bland as every "record-selling" med (Score:5, Insightful)

      by JaredOfEuropa ( 526365 ) on Sunday April 28, 2019 @06:04PM (#58506670) Journal
      Though I’ve never been much of a fan of superheroes in either comics or movies, I have to admit I did enjoy a few of the Marvel record breakers, in the way that I enjoy any other inane summer action blockbuster (a genre that has sadly been lacking any originality for the last decade or so). Guardians of the Galaxy made for a fun couple of movies, and Infinity War was decent entertainment. But this? “Bland” is the right word, not for the visuals but for the storytelling. And more than a few fans seem to agree, leaving somewhat disappointed after recalling Infinity War and the hyped build-up to this movie.

      I have one request to anyone out there. If you are ever in a brainstorming session with a bunch of script writers working on a movie, and one of them suggests time travel in order to work around some issues with the plot, please slap them about the head with a wet river trout (keep one handy just in case) until they beg for mercy, then slap him some more, until he is disabused of the notion that time travel makes for good plot. It rarely is, and it’s better to err on the side of caution. As this movie proves.

      • Re:Probably as bland as every "record-selling" med (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Lanthanide ( 4982283 ) on Sunday April 28, 2019 @06:05PM (#58506680)

        This was far better than Infinity War. It actually has a story. Infinity War is just a sequence of fights.

        • Comment removed based on user account deletion

        • Fights, and improbably bad decisions. I've not kept up with the movies very well for the last decade or so, but at some point they stopped being very entertaining. Black Panther and Infinity War left me bored for half the movie. And the bad decisions being made repeatedly at every turn by heroes who are supposed to be heroic killed much of my interest because whenever Thanos shows up you know the heroes are going to ineptly resist for a couple minutes then just hand over a stone.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      You are so much cooler than everyone else, with such elevated tastes... can I subscribe to your newsletter or podcast?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by ffkom ( 3519199 )
        I do not publish newsletters or podcasts, but if you need a tip how to notice less bland movies: Just try some that are not a sequel, a prequel, or part of any "franchise". And if you want to have some characters in your movie that are not stereotypes, try something that wasn't made in Hollywood, Bollywood or China.

    • Extrapolating from previous super-hero movies...

      I have doing that for a long time now, because these superhero movies are just "product" in the same way that a Big Mac is a product. The same thing every time.
      That seems to be what the general public wants, so I have no problem with it, and it is easy enough to avoid paying any money to the factories that churn this rubbish out, but I'm pretty sure I have seen this movie, probably several times, just with slightly different characters and sets.

    • this is most probably a very bland, very average piece of entertainment, without anything original or uniquely new.

      It was actually really good. Unless you have a heart of stone, you'll like it.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      There are some genuinely good films in the Marvel universe, and the first Avengers movie is a genuinely brilliant bit of work.

      Until then no-one had managed to do an ensemble superhero film that really worked. In fact except for the sequels no-one has done it since, including Justice League. Whedon deserves a lot of credit.

    • Extrapolating from previous super-hero movies and "record setters" in other media (like "Gangnam Style" or the "T-Series" channel") this is most probably a very bland, very average piece of entertainment, without anything original or uniquely new.

      You know that's exactly the sort of snooty comment that gets you labeled as a "hipster". If you don't like the movie, that's fine. Nobody will care I promise. But stop looking down your nose at the rest of us who enjoy the movie for what it is and the fun we have watching it. I don't personally like the sport of basketball but I understand why other people do and I don't think less of them for it.

      I will happily leave it to others to pay their record sales.

      How's the view up there on your high horse? You know that none of us are impressed at you for that attitude

  • But... piracy! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by SuricouRaven ( 1897204 ) on Sunday April 28, 2019 @05:55PM (#58506652)

    I thought piracy was killing hollywood? But this is a 'geek film' - it should appeal to exactly the same demographic most suspectable to piracy. Why is it still raking in the money?

    Could it be that hollywood *lied* to us with those claims of billions of dollars of lost revenue and an industry in ruin?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by morcego ( 260031 )

      Worth noticing that the first torrent CAM for Endgame hit the interwebs on the 25th.
      Doesn't look like piracy made any difference whatsoever on the box office.

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward

      They've got this one locked up tight. No rips available out there on the torrents. I though I found one but it was a film from another genre: Assvengers: End Games. Worth a watch, though.

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Shaitan ( 22585 )

        Superhero movies are "geek films" being geeky is just trendy now and everyone wants to think they are one of us. Mostly though, they've just transformed our cult classics and culture into pop culture.

        • Pretty much sums it up. Baseball attendance in ALL OF 2019 thus far is pegged at 11M (http://www.espn.com/mlb/attendance). 30M Americans saw Endgame in theaters... last weekend. Avengers is more american than baseball.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Of course they lied. There is a HD telecene (essentially someone scanned a print of the movie) on The Pirate Bay right now and it doesn't seem to have stopped people going to see it.

    • But this is a 'geek film' - it should appeal to exactly the same demographic most suspectable to piracy. Why is it still raking in the money?

      Two serious flaws in your chain of assumptions:

      1a- Superhero movies are mainstream, not "geek". This has been true ever since Superman (1978).

      1b- Comics themselves have been mainstream for most of their history. That is - until the crash of the early/mid 90's. But the major characters/franchises have remained more-or-less mainstream.

      2- Not all geeks are pirates, not

  • Great movie (Score:4, Informative)

    by jader3rd ( 2222716 ) on Sunday April 28, 2019 @05:56PM (#58506654)
    I loved watching Endgame. Great movie.

  • I'll go out on a limb. This is the peak for movies (In terms of single release revenue). The format is controlled by a very small set of companies who are extremely risk adverse. They don't want to put resources into anything that isn't part of a proven recipe.

    • I have a feeling that it will be as well, although for technological reasons. Film as a medium has dominated entertainment spending since about the 1930s, so it's coming up 100 years old. VR experiences are likely to take over within the next decade or two.

      • Not to mention that games like Red Dead Redemption 2 made over $1B in their opening weekend as well.

        • The next one won't. Most people that bought RDR2 stopped playing it before completion.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by ffkom ( 3519199 )
            Well, I played RDR2 till single player story mission completion (despite being chided being a snooty hipster in comments above :-) ).

            I would agree that it was somewhat less fun than RDR1, despite its huge investment in really great looking graphics, simply because there weren't enough new good ideas for game-play and story missions in it.

            Given that the difference between buying the physical RDR2 disk and selling it after having played through it was only about ~20 USD, it was still a fair price for quit

  • I do want to see it, but will probably wait for the Bluray from Netflix.

  • Brie Larsen must be happy then (Score:5, Funny)

    by elrous0 ( 869638 ) on Sunday April 28, 2019 @06:05PM (#58506678)

    It's kind of hard to tell though.

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Superhero movie, depth? Eh what?

    • No it was mediocre.

      Token appearance by a hyped figure that did nothing for any appeal that heroine could have had for future movies.

      A whole token femi-girl power group appearance that meant nothing.

      A villain that needed infinity stone superpowers in past to stand up to several heroes suddenly is powerful enough without them to fight them and hero's superweapons even when combined?

      stones needing special thing to wield on the level of Stormbreaker and MjÃlnir suddenly can be used with a mere earthly earl

  • Are these actual sales to people going to see the film or another case of the publishers prebooking a lot of seats to get the numbers up, with the film playing to fully booked yet half empty theatres?

    Opening weekend sales figures have lost whatever credibility they ever had because of that.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by jonwil ( 467024 )

      I went on Wednesday (opening day here in Australia) and the cinema I went to (one of the cheapest in Brisbane) was completly sold out by mid morning (across all 12 sessions being run that day). And the session I was in was definitely full of people so it wasn't a case of tickets being sold but no actual bums in seats)

    • Tickets were hard to get in San Jose, and the theater was full when I went.

    • Are these actual sales to people going to see the film or another case of the publishers prebooking a lot of seats to get the numbers up, with the film playing to fully booked yet half empty theatres?

      Opening weekend sales figures have lost whatever credibility they ever had because of that.

      Clearly, they are filling the seats from captives in Hillary Clinton's child sex ring.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by godrik ( 1287354 )

      Was that ever been confirmed? It makes very little sense to arrange something like that. To have real impact on number, you would need to do that at a scale that people would notice. It makes no sense to fully book some room and let them run empty. It would be better to book 10 seats out of every theaters, which I don't think is happening either.

      For these movies, opening nights typically see full theaters. I drive by my movie theater regularly and I can tell when a marvel movie is released because parking o

  • My friend and I used what amounts to two "one free movie" coupons purchased through an organization for about half price. When used at the theater they rang up as $28 for a half second before changing to $0. For the purposes of calculating this $2billion number, do tickets purchased this way count as the $28 sticker price, the $14 we actually paid, or the $0 that showed on the register?

  • They’re still clueless, though (Score:5, Insightful)

    by 93 Escort Wagon ( 326346 ) on Sunday April 28, 2019 @07:56PM (#58507044)

    ”Theatre owners hope this will also mean more ticket sales in the future, with millions of moviegoers exposed to trailers for upcoming films.”

    Theater owners have apparently not been listening to the frequent complaints regarding the endless stream of advertisements... er, trailers audience members are subjected to.

    It’s one of the reasons I don’t go to theaters anymore.

    • Re:They’re still clueless, though (Score:5, Informative)

      by phantomfive ( 622387 ) on Sunday April 28, 2019 @08:55PM (#58507306) Journal
      Arrive late. Problem solved. Seriously, this is something you can figure out.
      • > Arrive late. Problem solved. Seriously, this is something you can figure out.

        And push through 30 other people in the dark to get to your seat ? Screw that.

        No thanks. I will rather stay home. With a decent TV, sound system...and couple other things which take minimal effort you can possibly do, one gets better experience than at a stupid cinema where you get properly ripped off, can't pause, can't eat or drink what you want, and you have to share it with ton of strangers.

        Unless it's all sound e

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mishehu ( 712452 )

      Alamo Drafthouse [drafthouse.com] FTW. Plus you get this [youtube.com] as a possible PSA before the movie starts.

    • Theater owners have apparently not been listening to the frequent complaints regarding the endless stream of advertisements... er, trailers audience members are subjected to.

      Just about every regular cinemagoer I know likes the trailers. Nobody likes the adverts.

      They are not the same thing.

  • Just like Jedi it'll still never turn a profit.

  • Artificial Metric (Score:3)

    by blavallee ( 729704 ) on Sunday April 28, 2019 @09:15PM (#58507360) Journal
    Box office records are an artificial metric. Designed to create hype, but it's not a accurate measurement. It counts the money, not the number of seats filled.

    While there may be a small increase in the number of movie-goers every year, the next blockbuster movie will break "all the records" too. Ticket prices raise every few years, making it possible for this (movie) magic accounting outperform previous records.
    • It is sad when you think about it. The OP is right in that a new record will be shattered soon due to population and inflation, but simple growth tends to mask the actual level of a cultural phenomena that a movie represents.

      Unfortunately, I have enough grey hair to remember when return of the Jedi came out. Up until now, there was nothing like it save maybe Titanic. There was simply buzz everywhere. People would camp out like it was a new iphone or something. Almost everyone you knew saw Jedi, even peop
    • Seats filled isn't the right metric for measuring popularity either. The number you want is views per capita. By that metric, Gone with the Wind is still king [wikipedia.org]. Not only is it the top-grossing film of all time in inflation-adjusted dollars, inflation-adjusted ticket prices were roughly half their cost today [medium.com]. So its adjusted $3.7 billion represents more than twice as many seats sold as Avatar's $3.2 billion. And it did it when the U.S. population was less than half what it is today, so its viewings per c

  • If you're casually interested in the film, go see it two weeks after its first release. Due to bizarre pricing structures more of the proceeds stay with your local cinema that way and less sail off to Disney.

    Unless that's an old wives tale. Anyone in the know care to chime in?

    • lolz, why are you bothering to repeat gossip when you have no idea if it's true? How about everyone interested in going to see it whenever the hell they want?

      Don't feel sorry or feel need to support your local cinema when they're selling $5 hot dogs and $6 cups of carbonated flavored water. And $8 for popcorn?! They are doing fine, don't worry.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Trogre ( 513942 )

        Your incredibly myopic reply prompted me to look it up [stephenfollows.com].

        So thanks, I guess.

        Next time you're going to jump in to such a discussion, perhaps you'll first consider why your local cinema feels they need to charge $8 for popcorn.

        And why Disney can do whatever they want.

  • Lesson lost (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Texmaize ( 2823935 ) on Sunday April 28, 2019 @11:47PM (#58507774)
    The success of End Game tells and important story that I fear most studios fail to grasp. For Franchises, the success and profit of a movie can not be taken in the context of the movie by itself. It has to be thought of in terms of the movie preceding and succeeding the film.

    End game is reaping the benefit of the incredible Infinity War. When you saw Avengers III, there was almost no way that you did not want to see the end. I don't think I am alone in trying to convince people to see Infinity war, even if just on Netflix.

    Compare this to the equally "successful" Last Jedi. True, it did gross a great deal, but the Solo movie that followed it paid the price for Last Jedi basically being godawful. The cause and effect is obvious, but Hollywood expects seem to look at the success of just one film, instead of the good will that it inherited and the bad will it generates. I can't believe they haven't figured this out. If they had Captain Marvel would not be a thing. Identity politics is an economic loser. It did well because of linkage to end Game. The next audience will not be so hyped.

    • On the contrary, Infinity War was boring as hell and the characters kept making the same stupid decisions over and over again. I watched it because End Game was coming out and now I've got no interest in watching that movie. I'm glad lots of other people don't feel that way though as I've got stock in Disney.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Jahoda ( 2715225 )
      Compare this to the equally "successful" Last Jedi. True, it did gross a great deal, but the Solo movie that followed it paid the price for Last Jedi basically being godawful. The cause and effect is obvious, but Hollywood expects seem to look at the success of just one film, instead of the good will that it inherited and the bad will it generates. I can't believe they haven't figured this out. If they had Captain Marvel would not be a thing. Identity politics is an economic loser. It did well because of li
  • It represents the tremendous change that has taken place in generations due to computer games. It represents a fundamental change in culture and worldview. This was brought about by personal computers. It indicates the developing virtualization of life. The effects of the computer revolution roll on....

  • Not sure it's the number of people going (Score:3)

    by guruevi ( 827432 ) on Monday April 29, 2019 @11:57AM (#58510028)

    The cost of the ticket(s) has risen exponentially. Even my 'cheap' theater now charges $15/ticket with the larger movie theater conglomerates now charging nearly $20-25/ticket and $30 for 2 popcorns + 2 soda. You're talking $60+ to go out to a theater and have a movie night.

    So that's what's driving these prices, don't adjust for inflation, adjust for movie ticket prices.

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