Dr. Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) infamously said at the end of “Avengers: Infinity War” when they’ve just fought Thanos on his planet, “We’re in the endgame now.”
Almost a year later, the conveniently titled “Avengers: Endgame” opened in theaters rave critics and audience reviews this past weekend.
And these new shocking numbers prove “Avengers: Endgame” will be the biggest movie of all time.
The biggest box office successes of all time can be a bit ambiguous and complicated issue.
If you adjust for inflation, then “Gone with the Wind,” is the highest-grossing movie ever made, which was surprising considering that movie hit theaters during the worst part of The Great Depression. But that’s also just domestically when the rest of the world hadn’t caught up yet.
Again, adjusted for inflation, “Star Wars Episode IV – A New Hope” would come in second place.
However, in recent years, the rest of the world has caught up technologically to the domestic dominance that America always had.
The reason why “Avatar” and “Titanic” took over the highest-grossing throne is for that specific reason on a worldwide scale.
And depending on the movie and genre, as recently as 2012, you could adequately make a mathematical assumption that the rest of the world would make up two-thirds of the gross and this especially applies to action/adventure and science fiction.
But then you have the iconic movies that the whole world has been eagerly awaiting like the 30-plus-year hiatus in the “Star Wars” franchise when they finally brought back the original characters that made “Episodes IV, V and VI” great.
“Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” is now currently in third place with a worldwide gross of 2.068 billion dollars.
And then you have “Avengers: Endgame,” which shattered expectations and projections beyond all belief.
The universe belongs to Marvel now because they dominated the record for biggest opening weekend with an estimated $350 million in ticket sales domestically and $1.2 billion globally.
And they did it in the first weekend of release.
It literally made nearly a hundred million more than the previous record, “Avengers: Infinity War.”
It also set a new record in China with $330.5 million. Do you remember the aforementioned tidbit that the rest of the world made up two-thirds of the worldwide box office?
China usually comes in at one-third of the U.S. domestic box-office.
They almost tied America in ticket sales.
To give you another mind-blowing statistic about “Avengers: Endgame” worldwide success is that, in one fell swoop, it has already made more than movies like “Skyfall,” ”Aquaman” and “The Dark Knight Rises” entire runs (not accounting for inflation).
Disney chairman Alan Horn said, “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.”
It makes you wonder which worldwide event released in April is more powerful which is impossible to calculate – between the “Game of Thrones” final season premiere and the final phase three movie, “Endgame.”