Avengers: Infinity War Scores Biggest Opening Weekend Of All Time
No surprises here: uniting the Earth's mightiest heroes for an epic world-saving adventure will bring in big bucks at the box office. According to Box Office Mojo, Marvel's Avengers: Infinity War debuted to a massive $250 million domestic, topping Star Wars: The Force Awakens for the biggest domestic opening weekend of all time.
Infinity War has been poised to be a massive success for a long time, and the big question going into the weekend was whether it would be able to top The Force Awakens or if it would fall just slightly below it. It is still possible that the film's final box office tally could fluctuate when official numbers are released on Monday, but for now it seems that the film has taken the top prize. Infinity War has received positive reviews from critics, with an 84 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, and received an A CinemaScore.
The first Avengers film launched with a $207.4 million domestic opening way back in 2012, while the sequel fell slightly from that with $191.2 million. The most recent film in the MCU, Black Panther, blew box office projections out of the water with its $202 million opening. (That film got a bump from Infinity War joining it in theaters, taking fifth place for the weekend, up from last weekend's eighth.)
Infinity War, though, had quite a lot of things building towards its box office success. The movie, a culmination of 10 years of MCU world-building, was given Marvel's biggest marketing campaign to date. Buzz was so high that the film broke Fandango's record for one-day sales in just six hours when tickets were made available in March, and the first trailer also had a record 230 million views in its first 24 hours across Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other social media channels.
Infinity War also broke records worldwide, earning an additional $380 million overseas for a global total of $630 million, the highest worldwide opening weekend of all time. It managed to smash the record set by The Fate of the Furious ($541.9 million) despite the fact that it doesn't open in one of the world's biggest global markets, China, until May 11. (via The Hollywood Reporter)
"Infinity War is an irresistible confection, a pure popcorn movie that boasts an unprecedented level of concentrated superhero star power that will deliver massive and enthusiastic crowds to multiplexes around the world and prove once again that the power and allure of the communal and immersive movie theater experience for which a film like this is tailor made, remains undeniable," said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst with comScore.
Infinity War unites dozens of the MCU's many superheroes to fight against Thanos' (Josh Brolin) quest to gather all of the Infinity Stones and take over the universe. Appearing in the film are Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chris Evans), Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), T'Challa/Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Bucky Barnes/The Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan), Bruce Banner/The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Peter Parker/Spider-Man (Tom Holland), Peter Quill/Star-Lord (Chris Pratt), and Stephen Strange/Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch).
Also featured in the film are Shuri (Letitia Wright), Okoye (Danai Gurira), M'Baku (Winston Duke), Vision (Paul Bettany), Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olson), Wong (Benedict Wong), Gamora (Zoe Saldana), Nebula (Karen Gillan), Groot (Vin Diesel), Rocket (Bradley Cooper), Drax (Dave Bautista), Mantis (Pom Klementieff), James Rhodes/War Machine (Don Cheadle), and Sam Wilson/Falcon (Anthony Mackie). Tom Hiddleston, who plays Loki, and Benicio del Toro, who plays the Collector, also appear, while Peter Dinklage shows up in a surprise role.
Captain America: Civil War helmers Anthony and Joe Russo direct the film and its untitled sequel, both of which are based off scripts from Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely.
You can view this weekend's full box office results (via Box Office Mojo) below.
Top 10 Weekend Box Office Gross
1. Avengers: Infinity War: $250,000,000 (– percent), $250,000,000 Total Domestic Gross
2. A Quiet Place: $10,650,000 (-49.1 percent), $148,173,301 Total Domestic Gross
3. I Feel Pretty: $8,130,000 (-49.3 percent), $29,573,561 Total Domestic Gross
4. Rampage: $7,105,000 (-64.6 percent), $77,930,557 Total Domestic Gross
5. Black Panther: $4,381,000 (-11.2 percent), $688,009,489 Total Domestic Gross
6. Super Troopers 2: $3,600,000 (-76.3 percent), $22,084,929 Total Domestic Gross
7. Truth or Dare: $3,210,000 (-58.8 percent), $35,316,995 Total Domestic Gross
8. Blockers: $2,945,000 (-56.9 percent), $53,215,490 Total Domestic Gross
9. Ready Player One: $2,435,000 (-67.2 percent), $130,683,218 Total Domestic Gross
10. Traffik: $1,620,000 (-58.9 percent), $6,752,274 Total Domestic Gross