According to Deadline sources, before Avengers: Endgame flickers even one image on a movie screen ahead of its Thursday night previews nationwide, advance domestic ticket sales for the Russo Brothers-directed Marvel sequel are estimated to be north of $120 million, with some figuring they’re as high as $140M. These figures do not come from Disney.
Again, it’s not clear if all of those presales are designated for this weekend at the box office, but the projection makes sense: Avengers: Endgame shattered the first 24-hour advance tickets sales record set by Star Wars: The Force Awakens on Fandango four years ago and other exhibitor ticketing outlets. Prior to that pic’s once-historic opening domestic weekend of $247.9M, Force Awakens’ presales were estimated to be north of $100M.
We hear that the big three chains — AMC, Regal and Cinemark — currently are driving 75% of Endgame‘s presales.
Fandango reported this month that it sold out thousands of Endgame showtimes on its website and that theater owners were scrambling to post new showtimes and screens to meet fan demand (some as early as 4 AM and 6:30 AM for its opening day Friday). In its first seven days of presales on Fandango, Endgame sold five times as many tickets as last year’s Avengers: Infinity War.
When Endgame first hit tracking, we reported that an unprecedented $300M opening for Endgame wasn’t out of the question despite the pic having a 3 hour, 1 minute running time. (Avengers: Infinity War ran 2 hours, 29 minutes, and Star Wars: The Force Awakens clocked in at 2:16.) Math provided to Deadline by B.O. analysts specified that four or five showtimes a day of Endgame on five to eight screens per location, at a 70% capacity at 12,000 U.S. auditoriums, could make that box office threshold.
Again, when tracking is this bananas off the chart, and Endgame is well ahead of Infinity War in all categories and demos, the science of projecting a three-day weekend breaks down because the sampling of movies that have debuted to north of $200M is so small. More realistic projections for Endgame have it beating Infinity War‘s all-time domestic opening record of $257.6M last year at this time, and coming in within a range of $260M-$270M.
The world premiere for Endgame is tonight in Hollywood. Advance press screenings begin Tuesday.
‘Avengers: Endgame’: Millennials Binge On Marvel Mythology As Finale Film Looms
Must Read Stories
Subscribe to Deadline Breaking News Alerts and keep your inbox happy.