Avengers: Endgame Encore dusted off an estimated $86 million at the box office as new scenes helped bring Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) fans back to theaters to prep for the upcoming Doomsday.
It represents a gargantuan opening weekend for Disney and Marvel’s Infinity Saga-ending re-release, a performance that easily saw it rank atop global charts. Of its $86 million debut, it earned $26 million domestically and an impressive $60 million internationally, proving that the appetite for Earth’s Mightiest Heroes remains remarkably strong even years after their definitive cinematic conclusion.
For those unaware of why Avengers: Endgame is back in theaters, there are several reasons audiences have shown up in droves to watch the seven-year-old MCU movie all over again. First and foremost, the Encore re-release comes equipped with a few minutes of extra footage that ties directly into this December’s upcoming superhero crossover event film, Avengers: Doomsday. With director Joe Russo previously setting up the new clips as critical to the next movie’s plot, it seemed inevitable that at least die-hard fans would show up to secure every piece of narrative puzzle-solving ahead of time.
There has been plenty of debate across fandom spaces about whether those precious few minutes of new MCU footage could genuinely justify the price of another theater ticket, but with another $86 million safely in the bank, it is clear that plenty of moviegoers thought it was enough. It certainly helped that, outside of one prominent scene, the vast majority of Avengers: Endgame Encore keeps the original theatrical story intact, giving audiences a grand opportunity to relive all of the major hype moments, emotional beats, and big reveals before Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, and more legacy stars return to the sprawling cinematic universe later this year.
As Avengers: Endgame Encore brings the end of Thanos’ desperate mission to conquer the universe with the Infinity Stones back to the big screen, it also marks the remarkable return of one of the largest theatrical releases of all time. The original Avengers movie shattered records upon its explosive debut in 2019 and eventually returned later that same year for its first special re-release. Many of its most notable box office feats have held up remarkably well in the seven years since, with only Tom Holland’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day managing to topple some of those historic records when it secured the biggest domestic opening weekend in history just last month.
Through it all, Avengers: Endgame has now soared to an unbelievable $2.885 billion worldwide total across its lifetime theatrical runs. Disney has officially marked the Encore event as the second-highest debut for a re-release in cinematic history, falling just behind James Cameron’s monumental 2012 re-release of Titanic 3D.
While Marvel and Disney take what certainly feels like an endless run of box office victory laps, other titles are carving out their own impressive legacies. Zach Cregger’s horror feature Resident Evil proved it has substantial staying power after holding strong during its second weekend in theaters. It brought in another $23 million domestically and $27 million internationally, pushing its two-weekend worldwide total to an incredible $196.5 million against a reported $75 million production budget. Despite facing an uphill battle with some traditional purists regarding its creative direction, the Capcom video game adaptation quickly solidified its status as the highest-rated game movie of all time.
Also making waves at the box office this weekend was the Brad Pitt-led survival drama Heart of the Beast, which brought in $50.1 million globally and fetched an enthusiastic 8/10 review from critics at IGN. Meanwhile, director Lance Oppenheim and star Robert Pattinson’s gripping feature Primetime—a major biopic based on Chris Hansen’s infamous To Catch a Predator investigations that earned a glowing 9/10 review—pulled in $20.06 million globally, with the vast majority of that total ($19.2 million) generated domestically.
Looking at the broader landscape, the top five films at the global box office from this past weekend saw Avengers: Endgame Encore take the crown in first place, Resident Evil hold firm in second, and Heart of the Beast round out the podium in third. Primetime and Forgotten Island rounded out the top five list in fourth and fifth place, respectively.
While Avengers: Endgame Encore presents mostly the same runtime and narrative viewers experienced back in 2019, its return has still managed to spark plenty of cultural conversation as the release of Doomsday rapidly approaches. Among the many talking points circulating online and inside cinema lobbies is a brand-new, star-studded pre-movie theater advertisement featuring beloved Avengers and X-Men characters reminding fans to silence their cell phones before the lights go down.