In a final push to beat Avatar’s box office record, Marvel Studios has re-released Avengers: Endgame with several minutes of new content. And while only time will tell if the strategy will be enough to close the gap, so far, the approach seems to be paying off.
Exhibitor Relations reports that the Avengers: Infinity War sequel made $1.8 million domestically on Friday, bringing its North American total up to $837 million. This marks a huge improvement on the previous Friday, which saw Endgame bring in just $530,906. At this rate, the movie could gross close to $3 million today, compared to the $818,809 made last Saturday.
On a global level, Endgame’s total now stands at almost $2.754 billion, putting the film just over $34 million behind Avatar’s $2.788 billion figure. Proportionally speaking, that’s not much of a gap, but given Endgame’s current pace at the box office, we can still expect a long wait before the Russo Brothers’ latest feature takes the crown, assuming it ever does.
It’s now been over two months since Endgame first arrived in theaters, and while the movie got off to a record-breaking start back in April, many have argued that it simply hasn’t sustained its success well enough to beat James Cameron’s 2009 sci-fi. That being said, Endgame has already surpassed the figure for Avatar’s original theatrical run, and the fans are now hoping that the new re-release can help make up the difference.
Will the combination of a Stan Lee tribute, an unfinished deleted scene and a Spider-Man: Far From Home clip be sufficient to push Avengers: Endgame to the top of the all-time rankings? Possibly not, but it wouldn’t be the first time the Marvel megahit has exceeded expectations at the box office.