Avengers: Endgame' Sets Record for First-Day Ticket Sales
April 26 2019 - 10:48AM
Dow Jones News
By Erich Schwartzel
LOS ANGELES -- Less than a day after it began screening for
audiences, Walt Disney Co.'s "Avengers: Endgame" is already on its
way toward a record-setting opening weekend.
The Marvel Studios blockbuster collected a record $60 million
from Thursday evening screenings in the U.S. and Canada, Disney
said Friday, besting the previous record -- set by Disney's "Star
Wars: The Force Awakens" in 2015 -- by $3 million.
Box-office analysts expect "Endgame" to collect around $275
million in the U.S. and Canada this weekend, with some estimates
approaching $300 million. Either way, it is widely expected to beat
the record held by last year's "Avengers: Infinity War," which
opened to $258 million.
"Avengers: Endgame" wraps up several story lines that have
pulled in audiences since 2008's "Iron Man" kicked off the Marvel
Cinematic Universe, an interconnected series of superhero epics
spanning 21 movies. The series' success has been the envy of
Hollywood, prompting other studios to seek franchises of their
own.
Demand for the movie -- and its three-hour running time -- have
forced exhibitors to turn over an unprecedented number of
auditoriums to the movie. "Endgame" will play on about 50% of all
screens in the U.S. and Canada this weekend, estimates analyst Eric
Handler of MKM Partners. Some theaters are playing the movie for 72
hours straight.
The nation's largest exhibitor, AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc.,
said Friday "Endgame" was screening a record 58,000 times at its
theaters this weekend, more than 10,000 more showings than
"Infinity War" had in its debut. Fandango, the top movie-ticketing
site, reported this week there were more than 8,000 sold-out
screenings of the movie heading into the weekend.
"Avengers: Endgame" began screening in some foreign markets
earlier this week, and has collected an additional $305 million
from international audiences so far.
Leading the pack: China, where its two-day gross hit $154.5
million. That puts "Endgame" on track to become the
highest-grossing Hollywood import of all time in the market. The
current record is held by 2017's "The Fate of the Furious," which
grossed $393 million there.
Write to Erich Schwartzel at erich.schwartzel@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 26, 2019 11:33 ET (15:33 GMT)
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