‘Avengers: Endgame’ could deliver record opening in US
LOS ANGELES: ‘ Avengers: Endgame’, already a record holder for advance ticket sales, is on track to open in the US$ 200 million- US$ 250 million range in North America and stands a good chance of usurping current champion ‘ Avengers: Infinity War’ and go higher than US$ 257.7 million.
Marvel Studios’ upcoming 22nd release – it opens on Apr 26 – comes hot on the heels of the US$ 1 billion global milestone set by this year’s Captain Marvel.
Industry observers say there is no question it will exceed Captain Marvel’s US$ 153.4 million opening weekend in early March to score the highest debut of the year-to- date.
Some have even speculated it could gross more than US$ 300 million, although the run time of more than three hours limits the number of daily presentations in theatres and makes such a target unlikely.
At a filmmakers round table at CinemaCon on Thursday, Matthew Bakal, co- founder of online ticket platform Atom Tickets, said ‘Avengers: Endgame’ shattered pre- sales records in North America, selling more tickets in its first 24 hours than the first days of the four previous record- holders combined. They are: ‘Aquaman’, ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’, ‘Avengers: Infinity War’, and ‘ Solo - A Star Wars Story’.
In its first 24 hours the upcoming film sold five times as many tickets as the previous record set by Aquaman, and within hours of going on sale ‘ Endgame’ sold more three times more tickets than 2018’s ‘Avengers: Infinity War’.
The rush for tickets created blackouts on several companies’ websites. At its peak, traffic to the Atom Tickets website and app was 20 times that of the usual volume.