Avengers: Endgamehas been decimating the box office since hitting theaters late last month. The Marvel Studios project has already beaten several records and has made an unprecedented amount of money in a short amount of time, but the earnings are starting to slow down quite a bit. From the get-go, it has been speculated thatEndgamewould go the distance and defeat James Cameron’sAvataras the highest grossing global movie of all time, but it’s beginning to look like it might not happen now.
As of this writing,Avengers: Endgameis sitting at $2.62 billion at the globalbox officewhileAvatarrests at $2.78 billion. “It’s slowed down more than we all expected,” says Shawn Robbins, chief analyst at BoxOffice Media, when looking at how fast the movie was able to become the second highest grossing movie of all time.Avatar’s success was more of a gradual climb as opposed to a giant rush to the surface likeEndgame. “Avatarwas all about the marathon and now it’s about the sprint,” says Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at ComScore.
Shawn Robbins had previously predicted thatAvengers: Endgamewould take the worldwide record this weekend since it’s a holiday weekend. However, since the movie has seen some pretty drastic declines over the past two weeks, he doesn’t believe it’s going to happen this weekend and has doubts that it will be able to get to the top when all is said and done. The global expansion of the box office also shows some differences in the two movies and the way they bring in money. For instance, China only made up 7% of totalAvatarsales, while it currently makes up 24% ofEndgame’s.
Avatarspent over 60 weeks building to the global box office record, which also included a late summer re-release over six months after its debut. Since Marvel Studios is so close, one can easily see some kind of re-release in the future to end up taking downJames Cameron’s record breaker.Spider-Man: Far From Homehits theaters in early July and it could spark some extra interest inAvengers: Endgame, much like the latest movie did withCaptain Marvel’s box office haul.
IfAvengers: Endgamecontinues its current trend, it will more than likely fall short of hitting the mark. With that being said, Disney and Marvel Studios probably have some tricks up their sleeves when it comes to taking downAvatar. Although, Disney does own both properties, so they’re really just competing with themselves, which is going to end up happening a lot in the near future as they continue to release more movies from their recent Fox acquisition. This weekend and future weekends are going to prove to be a challenge forEndgameas more competition hits the summer season. The Hollywood Reporter originally interviewed Shawn Robbins and Paul Dergarabedian.
