Welcome to our annual Summer Blockbuster Season predictions, and once again summer has come early to the box office.
Yes, after pulling off the stunt last year of opening a week before the unofficial start of Blockbuster Season, the folks in charge of the Avengers franchise have done it again.
The fourth and final movie of the series, Avengers: Endgame, has already opened this past weekend in the domestic and worldwide markets 鈥� a full week before the traditional first-weekend-in-May kickoff to the summer season.
The box office results have been staggering. Avengers: Endgame聽has just pulled off the biggest worldwide opening of all time, at $1.2 billion U.S. for Marvel Studios and Disney.
It is the first motion picture in history to earn over a billion dollars in its opening weekend, and it did it in just five days of release! The previous record was set a year ago by Avengers: Infinity War聽at $640.5 million.
The movie鈥檚 domestic weekend haul was staggering: $356 million over three days, breaking the previous record of $257.69 million set by Avengers: Infinity War聽last year. Its international opening weekend was $859 million, shattering the previous record of $443.15 million set by The Fate of the Furious. Of the grand total, $330 million is from the Chinese market.
Add it all together and the haul worldwide tops over $1.2 billion. This, my friends, is ridiculous.
Box Office Mojo is reporting several other domestic records have also fallen: largest Thursday previews ($60 million, beating Star Wars: The Force Awakens聽by $3 million), widest opening at 4,662 theatres, largest Friday, largest Opening Day and largest Single Day hauls over $156.7 million (topping Star Wars: The Force Awakens聽by $37.6 million), largest Saturday at $109 million, largest Sunday at 84.3 million, largest Number One Movie market share at 90 percent, highest per theatre average for a wide opening at $75,075, and the largest April opening, spring opening, PG-13 opening, and three-day gross.
This movie also set a number of 鈥渇astest-to鈥� records, including fastest to $100 million, fastest to $200 million, fastest to $300 million and fastest to $350 million. No doubt it will soon set records for 鈥渇astest to $400 million鈥�, 鈥渇astest to $500 million鈥� and so on.
Obviously the countdown is now on to see if this movie topples 础惫补迟补谤听to become the biggest grossing movie of all time worldwide. 础惫补迟补谤听holds the worldwide record at $2.87 billion, while the domestic box office record is held by Star Wars: The Force Awakens聽at $936,662,225. Even with the other summer competition on the way, you would think both of these major box office records are now in jeopardy.
Given what we have just seen from Avengers: Endgame聽I find it hard to fathom that any other movie is going to do better at the box office this summer. The hype for this flick has taken on a life of its own.听聽聽
From what I see ahead, the next big blockbuster at the movies is likely Pokemon - Detective Pikachu聽on May 9: this will do big business simply because it鈥檚 Pokemon.
Next is John Wick: Chapter 3 鈥� Parabellumon May 17 and 础濒补诲诲颈苍听on May 24. Then a week later you have the wide release for Godzilla: King of the Monsters, released by Warner Bros. and you have to know I will be in the audience for that one.
(This latest Godzilla flick opens the same weekend as Rocketman, that biopic about Elton John, but I see the big green monster doing much better at the box office.)聽
June 7 will see X-Men: Dark Phoenix聽go up against The Secret Life of Pets 2, and then on June 14 we see another battle as Men in Black International聽takes on Shaft.
Then the real box-office heavy hitters will start to be released. June 21 will see Toy Story 4, the latest in the signature Pixar franchise.
July 2 will see Spider-Man: Far from Home, which should clean up simply because it is 厂辫颈诲别谤-惭补苍听and Marvel.
On July 19 is The Lion King, the live action version of the animated feature that was such a big hit in the nineties.
The next week, July 26, will see Once Upon a Time in Hollywood聽roll out 鈥� the latest Quentin Tarantino flick set during the height of Charles Manson-era Hollywood.
One more movie that catches my box-office interest rolls out on Aug. 2 and that is Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs and Shaw.听
Summer blockbuster season typically ends around Labour Day but I notice that It: Chapter Two聽will be released the following weekend on Sept. 6, so that is going to do big business as well. Which goes to show you that blockbusters can happen any time of year, it doesn鈥檛 matter what the calendar says anymore.
The dates that I mentioned are the wide-release dates in North America. For dates and times for when these movies are screening in the Battlefords at the Capitol鈥檚 theatres, see .听聽
Looking ahead, I foresee the domestic box office totals for the upcoming summer blockbusters roughly looking like this:
The Lion King 鈥�$440 million
Toy Story 4 鈥�$380 million
Spider-Man:Far from Home 鈥�$330 million
Detective Pikachu 鈥�$320 million
Godzilla: Kings of the Monsters 鈥�$300 million
As for the haul for Avengers: Endgame, I wouldn鈥檛 be surprised if its domestic haul cracks a billion dollars by the time it is all over.
That is an unheard of amount of money, but entirely possible based on the early numbers. The big question is whether this movie will continue to do big business up against all the rest of these big-ticket releases that are coming soon.
We shall see what transpires. That is all for now.听聽聽
