Take a closer look at the numerous records broken by the film.
It REALLY pays to be in the superhero business.
On Sunday, Walt Disney Studios announced that Avengers: Endgame obliterated box office records over the weekend -- raking in $1.2 billion at the global box office. It is the first film to ever cross the billion-dollar benchmark in a single weekend.
This astonishing achievement is a five-day cumulative total, which outpaced its predecessor Avengers: Infinity War in half the time. The 2018 film took 11 days to get to ten digits. This also means the film beat out Infinity War ($641 million) for biggest single weekend total.
But the record breaking hardly ends there. It brought in an estimated $350 million domestically, once again beating Infinity War, which earned $257.6 million. The ensemble film also made $859 million internationally, including $330.5 million from China alone. Once again this total trounces Infinity War, which held the record with $640 million. In Thursday night previews alone the film made $60 million, beating out 2015's Star Wars: The Force Awakens (another Disney film) by $3 million.
"Kevin Feige and the Marvel Studios team have continued to challenge notions of what is possible at the movie theatre both in terms of storytelling and at the box office," Alan Horn, Chairman, The Walt Disney Studios, said. "Though 'Endgame' is far from an end for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, these first 22 films constitute a sprawling achievement, and this weekend's monumental success is a testament to the world they've envisioned, the talent involved, and their collective passion, matched by the irrepressible enthusiasm of fans around the world."
The film finds Earth's Mightiest Heroes defeated by Thanos (Josh Brolin), an incredibly powerful being bent on decimating half of the universe's lifeforms in a misguided effort to preserve life. At the end of Infinity War, a number of beloved characters were "dusted" when Thanos snaps his fingers after collecting all six of the Infinity Stones, gems which give the user immense power. In effect, the villain achieved his goal, setting extremely high stakes for Endgame.
The dual project brought together characters from all of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's disparate storylines including Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans), Rocket Raccoon (Bradley Cooper), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), The Incredible Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Ant-Man (Paul Rudd), War Machine (Don Cheadle) and many more.
"We poured our heart and soul into 'Avengers: Endgame,' hoping to tell a story that would inspire audiences around the world," directors Joe and Anthony Russo wrote in response to the record-breaking numbers. "Our family of cast and crew felt honored to be entrusted with bringing the Infinity Saga to a close. To Kevin Feige, everyone at Disney and Marvel, and the incredible, global community of fans -- thank you."
Although Marvel has a number of release dates on their schedule, no upcoming projects have been announced besides this summer's Spider-Man: Far From Home, which is a joint effort with Columbia Pictures.
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