clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Avengers: Endgame breaks box office records with massive $1.2 billion opening

The fourth Avengers film also had the biggest U.S. opening of all time

By Owen S. Good
jeremy renner as hawkeye in avengers endgame Marvel Studios/Disney
Owen S. Good is a longtime veteran of video games writing, well known for his coverage of sports and racing games.
Part of The Avengers: Endgame guide

Box office expectations for Avengers: Endgame were huge. But not this huge.

Disney announced Sunday morning that Avengers: Endgame pulled in an estimated $1.209 billion worldwide in its opening weekend, easily smashing the record of $640.5 million that Avengers: Infinity War set just last year. The figure also makes Avengers: Endgame the first film in history to surpass $1 billion in ticket sales in its debut weekend.

By the same virtue, the superhero ensemble smashed records for foreign and worldwide debuts (thanks to a day-and-date premiere in China), and just three days in, is already placing crosshairs on all-time records and other prestige numbers.

Disney’s statement today claimed No. 1’s for Avengers: Endgame in:

  • Domestic gross: $350 million (overtaking 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War at $257.6 million).
  • International gross: $859 million (smashing 2017’s The Fate of the Furious, which earned $443.1 million in non-U.S. ticket sales).
  • Domestic single-day gross: $156.7 million, on Friday.
  • Domestic Saturday gross: $109 million (the first $100 million day without previews).
  • Domestic Sunday gross: $84.3 million.
  • Opening day, China: $107.8 million.
  • Opening weekend, China: $330.5 million.
  • Fastest movie to $1 billion (worldwide): Five days.
  • Biggest IMAX global debut: $91.5 million.
  • Eighth Marvel Studios movie to earn $1 billion. (This year’s Captain Marvel was the seventh.)

That fairly moots the $300 million (domestic) expectations that even seemed aggressive or hype-driven at the time experts offered them.

With the two largest movie markets (the U.S. and China) churning away together, Deadline reported Saturday that analysts expect Avengers: Endgame “will near cash breakeven” as of Sunday — meaning that in one weekend, Disney made back everything it spent to make and market the movie, and from here on out it’s a river of gravy.

That also means domestic and foreign all-time records are in range. Avengers: Infinity War took in $678.8 million in the U.S. last year, good for fourth all-time behind (in ascending order) Black Panther (also 2018), Avatar (2009), and Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015). Right now, Avengers: Endgame appears to be a lock to finish No. 2, and possibly to dethrone Star Wars. Worldwide, Avatar is the highest-grossing movie ever at $2.79 billion; Infinity War is currently fourth at $2.05 billion.

We’ve written a few things about Avengers: Endgame’s opening weekend for you to peruse. Among them, our guaranteed no-spoiler review, and a spoiler-free list of scenes you can skip if you need to go pee during the flick’s three-hour, one-minute running time. Or you dive into our full spoiler analysis. You have time — despite the gargantuan box-office total, this is only the first week of Avengers: Endgame summerlong theatrical run.