Last week in the movie report I shared predictions for “Avengers: Endgame’s” box office results in its first weekend. The predictions came in between $250 million and $300 million, and I more or less agreed with the consensus.
How wrong that turned out to be.
In North America, Box Office Mojo is reporting an estimated gross of $350 million while Deadline Hollywood is projecting higher at $356 million. Internationally, fans flocking to theaters pushed the global total in its opening weekend to a whopping $1.2 billion.
According to Box Office Mojo, here are some of the records:
- “Endgame” with $60 million for Thursday previews, beat $57 million by “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.”
- “Endgame” with $156.7 million for largest Friday, ahead of “Force Awakens” with $119.1 million.
- For largest Saturday, “Endgame” with $109 million over the $82.1 million by “Avengers: Infinity War.”
For the overall weekend in total, “Endgame” with $350 million crushed the previous record of $257.69 million by “Infinity War.” On the worldwide level, the “Endgame” opening weekend of $1.2 billion was WAY ahead of the $640.5 million by “Infinity War.”
While it’s early, there’s good data to predict that “Endgame” will join the $2 billion worldwide club. Current members include “Avatar” with $2.7 billion, “Titanic” with $2.1 billion, “Force Awakens” with $2.06 billion and “Infinity War” with $2.04 billion.
In North America, the movie also has the opportunity to join the $600 million club. Current members include:
- “Force Awakens” with $936.6 million.
- “Avatar” with $760.5 million.
- “Black Panther” with $700.05 million.
- “Infinity War” with $678.8 million.
- “Titanic” with $659.3 million.
- “Jurassic World” with $652.2 million.
- “The Avengers” with $623.3 million.
- “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” with $620.1 million.
- “Incredibles 2” with $608.5 million.
Marvel Studios’ box office power even had a trickle down effect recently, too. “Captain Marvel” had dropped to sixth in the April 12-14 weekend, then rose to fourth in the April 19-21 weekend. This past weekend, “Captain Marvel” shot up to the No. 2 spot, with $8.05 million.
Rounding out the top five was:
- “The Curse of La Llorona” with $7.5 million.
- “Breakthrough” with $6.3 million.
- “Shazam!” with $5.5 million.
New releases for the upcoming week, meanwhile, include the romcom “Long Shot,” the animated feature “UglyDolls” and a thriller in “The Intruder.” Even with those releases, though, there’s a good opportunity for “Endgame” to take the No. 1 spot again.
As for releases on the small screen, films include:
- Miss Bala, my rating: 2.25 out of 5, Large Association of Movie Blogs rating: 1.81 out of 5, Rotten Tomatoes rating: 22%.
- Serenity, my rating: 1.5 out of 5, Large Association of Movie Blogs rating: 1.81 out of 5, Rotten Tomatoes rating: 19%.
Matthew Liedke on Film 