Though it may err on the side of hyperbole, there’s never been a movie quite like Avengers: Infinity War.
Frankly, after 10 years and 18 films worth of groundwork, Marvel’s box office juggernaut is more akin to a cinematic event, one that really ought to be seen on the biggest screen possible. It’s by no means perfect, of course, but as a pseudo-finale to this current installment of the MCU, directors Joe and Anthony Russo delivered the goods, and Marvel Studios is now in the process of reaping the rewards.
Infinity War‘s box office numbers continue to climb by the hour and just the other day, we learned that the biggest MCU movie thus far is expected to add an additional $100M-$130M to its domestic tally this weekend. That’d be an incredible result for the film and while the final numbers won’t be here until Monday morning, we’re now hearing from Deadline that Infinity War has officially crossed the $1 billion worldwide mark, becoming the fastest film to do so.
Yes, in just 11 short days, the superhero extravaganza has achieved the milestone. As of Friday night, it sat at $974.5 million and once today’s box office receipts are added in, it’ll be well over $1 billion. For the record, Star Wars: The Force Awakens took 12 days to hit this number, so having Infinity War do it in 11 is wildly impressive.
On a global scale, Infinity War is still trying to top The Avengers ($1.5 billion), Marvel’s first landmark crossover that assembled Earth’s Mightiest Heroes back in 2012. Though at $1 billion, it’s already well on its way there, and Avengers 3 still has an ace in the hole: China.
As we reported earlier this week, Marvel’s 2018 event movie isn’t expected to reach the Middle Kingdom until Friday, May 11th – for the record, Russia will open its doors to Avengers: Infinity War this weekend – so there’s every chance Chinese audiences will help propel the MCU title towards box office greatness. And $2 billion, perhaps? Time will tell.