Avengers: Endgame is once again top dog in terms of box office gross.
Thanks to its encore re-release ahead of Avengers: Doomsday, the 2019 Marvel Studios blockbuster has become the most lucrative release in history, overtaking Avatar with close to $3 billion worldwide.
“These films, now under the same corporate umbrella, have been in a box office celebrity death match for years,” Rentrak Head of Market Trends Paul Dergarabedian told SYFY Wire, “and we, the audience, are the willing participants fueling the revenue generating sweepstakes with our hard-earned cash.”
Endgame previously enjoyed the No. 1 spot for about two years after release until spring 2021 when Avatar was reissued in China.
“This goes well beyond racking up dollars at the box office cash register,” Dergarabedian continued. “These are great, cinematic films meant to be seen in a theater. Re-releases give people who may have only viewed them on their small screens the opportunity to experience them as intended, on the big screen in the communal environment of a movie theater with fellow fans. Box office provides an objective measure of their popularity, but it’s also about what these films mean culturally, their place in cinema history and what they mean moving forward for the Marvel brand.”
Marking the grand finale of the MCU’s Infinity Saga, the movie was sent back to theaters with four additional scenes that lay the table for what’s to come in Doomsday. Most concerning among them is a return visit to the Time Variance Authority, where Mobius (Owen Wilson), Casey (Eugene Cordero) and O.B. (Ke Huy Quan) witness a total collapse of the multiverse.
“The Encore edition provided the spark to ignite renewed excitement for the new film,” concluded Dergarabedian, “while boosting Endgame into top dog bragging rights status on the all-time chart.”
Joe Russo and Anthony Russo, the sibling directorial duo behind Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, returned to helm Doomsday, which also sees the return of Marvel OG Robert Downey Jr. Of course, the Oscar-winning actor won’t be playing Tony Stark/Iron Man, but classic Marvel baddie Doctor Doom.
The script hails from Infinity War and Endgame co-writer Stephen McFeely.
Avengers: Doomsday is in theaters Friday, Dec. 18. Click here for tickets.
