Walt Disney and Marvel’s Avengers: Infinity War earned another $16.5 million (-43%) on its fifth weekend of release, pushing its 31-day domestic total to $621.7m.
So, yes, as of its first month in theaters, the Thanos versus everyone MCU epic has passed the unadjusted domestic gross of Star Wars: The Last Jedi to become the sixth-biggest grosser of all time in North America.
By tomorrow, with a $20m Fri-Mon weekend gross, it will pass the unadjusted domestic gross of The Avengers ($623m in 2012) to become the fifth-biggest domestic earner of all time. Okay, so it’s behind the $706m adjusted gross of The Avengers, but c’est la vie.
Where it goes from here is the big question. But it held almost as well as Fast Five (-39% in weekend five) over the Memorial Day weekend, which is incredibly encouraging as well as a useful comparison since that modern action classic was the last mega-movie to start the summer a week early way back in 2011.
Infinity War has two weeks before Ocean’s 8 and three weeks before The Incredibles 2, meaning it (and Solo and Deadpool 2) will have some time to make some extra money in North America before the second act of the summer kicks into gear.
Comparatively, while Fast Five had smaller week-to-week grosses (it made less in 2011 in North America and worldwide than Avengers: Infinity War earned on its opening weekend here and abroad), it also had to deal with X-Men: First Class on June 1 and Super 8 on June 8.
So if the slightly larger Infinity War drop balances out the smaller-scale competition, then Infinity War could play like Fast Five for the rest of its run for an over/under $665 million domestic gross.
That would put it past Jurassic World ($652m) and Titanic ($659m) to become the fourth-biggest domestic earner behind Black Panther ($698m), Avatar ($760m) and The Force Awakens ($937m).
The film is still doing well overseas, with a current global cume of $1.904.7 billion worldwide. That includes $336 million in China, putting behind only the last two Fast and Furious movies among Hollywood exports in China.
That also puts the flick in fourth place globally (and, with $1.283b overseas, in third place in foreign box office) behind Star Wars: The Force Awakens ($2.068b), Titanic ($2.1b) and Avatar ($2.7b).
Ironically, Solo opening so low here and abroad may allow Infinity War to top Force Awakens to take its place alongside the James Cameron epics.
Of note, I took my (almost) seven-year-old son to see it on Friday. He had a grand time and he can’t wait to see how that cliffhanger gets resolved next year.
I’m not outright saying that Avengers 4 will match or exceed Avengers 3, but unless it’s aggressively unsatisfying I can’t imagine that much of a downturn.
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Source: Forbes
