Endgame poised to blast past global opening record with early China release

March 29th 2019, 9:40am

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Last April AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR lived up to the expectations as one of the biggest movies ever made by demolishing the global opening weekend record with $640 million, which is $100 million more than the second-place holder (THE FATE OF THE FURIOUS). One year later and the expectations are even higher for AVENGERS: ENDGAME, and while a number that trounces over half a billion dollars seems intimidating for even the most super of superhero teams, ENDGAME is poised to break its predecessor’s impressively broken record thanks to wild fan anticipation – and a same-week opening in China.

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Chinese authorities have announced that Marvel’s fourth AVENGERS outing and 22nd movie overall will be getting an April 24 release date, which places it only two days before the April 26 release stateside, and officially part of the global opening haul. Last year INFINITY WAR opened at the same time in North America, Europe, and a combined 72 percent of the overseas market at the same time, but with the Middle Kingdom and Russia not getting the superhero mashup until two weeks later in mid-May. Now with the second-largest movie market in the world joining the squad (Russia still has to wait), the chances of ENDGAME breaking its predecessor’s record are incredibly likely.

As Deadline notes, should ENDGAME do so it will be in spectacular fashion. While early tracking is unavailable (tickets haven’t even gone on sale), all one has to do is some basic math to get a rough estimate that ENDGAME could have an $800-900 million global opening. When INFINITY WAR opened last May in China, it did so to a massive $199 million, which added to the overall global opening of $640 million comes to a staggering $839 million which, should ENDGAME near with even $100 million chopped off, would blast past the record.

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Of course, these numbers only give a very rough and unclear picture of what ENDGAME’s opening could be. Nearby competition isn’t an issue, as no one dares to go up against a movie of this size, but there are other factors to consider. The movie has a reported runtime of a solid three hours, which may limit the amount of screenings theaters can fit into a given day. As well, according to the Deadline report, China’s State Council has announced an extended four-day break for schools and companies going from May 1-4, and to make up for those days both Sunday, April 28 and Sunday, May 5 will be work days. That means ENDGAME’s first Sunday will be affected with work in session, and audiences could wait until the next week for their vacation to see the movie. Or, it could go another way, and audiences will pack in Friday and Saturday knowing they don’t have Sunday off. I mean, that’s what I would do.

At the end of the day, we’re a little under a month away from the epic movie and there’s plenty of box office speculation to be had. What we do know is that anticipation for the movie is about the same if not higher for this outing compared to last year’s, so a similar opening should be expected. Should it even be a tad lower, it would have to be a substantial drop for it not to break the record with China now in the mix. So one month from today, be sure to stay tuned for a massive number next to ENDGAME box office results.

AVENGERS: ENDGAME with Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Mark Ruffalo, Jeremy Renner, Paul Rudd, Brie Larson, Karen Gillan, Danai Gurira, Don Cheadle, Benedict Wong, Tessa Thompson, Bradley Cooper and Josh Brolin is in theaters April 26.