‘Avengers: Endgame’ China Release Set On April 24; $800M+ WW Opening In Sight?

Disney/Marvel’s Avengers: Endgame is already poised to be one of the biggest movies of the year — and perhaps of all time — and its potential global opening looks like it just got a whole lot bigger. Chinese authorities have now given the superhero fourquel an April 24 release date. Unlike Avengers: Infinity War, this means Endgame opens in the Middle Kingdom in step with the rest of the beginning of international rollout and two days ahead of domestic’s launch which falls on Friday April 26.

It also means that if Endgame were to perform on par with Infinity War — and note these are unadjusted numbers — it would be looking at an $840M worldwide opening to blast Iron Man and the gang past the all-time record they set in 2018.

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Last year, Infinity War began its international box office run on April 25, also a Wednesday, and was in 72% of the overseas marketplace through that weekend, with China and Russia going later (Endgame too will not have Russia in its launch suite with the market joining play on Monday April 29). The offshore opening on Infinity War was $382.7M with domestic at $257.7M. That set an all-time global opening of $640.4M. Two weeks later, Infinity War crushed a $199.3M China bow.

Combined, those opening scores equal $839.7M. Before we get ahead of ourselves — and we’ll look more closely at Endgame‘s potential opening in the weeks to come — there are several factors to take into account: There have been overseas exchange rate fluctuations since last year, Endgame is understood to have a longer running time than Infinity War, and it is not yet on tracking domestically. So we’ll wait before doing a considered prediction. However, just the straight math is eye-popping.

What’s more, Infinity War‘s China debut was over just three days. With Endgame‘s April 24 Middle Kingdom date, the film, again from directors Anthony Russo and Joe Russo, is getting extra play in its first frame. It will also play into holidays the following week.

Earlier this month, China’s State Council said companies and schools will have an extended four-day break from May 1-4. However, to compensate the extra days off, both Sunday April 28 and Sunday May 5 will be work days. So, it’s worth bearing in mind that since the first Sunday is a work day, it could certainly affect the opening.

Infinity War went on to gross over $2B worldwide, becoming only the fourth movie ever to the milestone. The domestic total was $678.8M with $1.37B overseas. Of that, $360M came from China.

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