Do click here for our Avengers: Infinity War spoiler-free review.
Also check out our spoiler-filled analysis here.
Avengers: Infinity War grossed another US$ 23.4 million in North America, earning US$ 305.9 million in five days of release. Outside of North America, Infinity War raked in another US$ 65 million, putting its global tally at a massive US$ 808 million. That is a ridiculous amount of money and the movie hasn’t even opened in China yet. This means that the 19th movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe will most likely gross US$ 1 billion by the end of its second weekend, without the aid of the second biggest movie market in the world.
To put things into perspective, the second Avengers outing, Avengers: Age of Ultron, grossed over US$ 155.7 million opening weekend in China. That is almost double of what The Avengers (2012) made in China in total (US$ 86 million). Given the hype and critical reception, I think it’s safe to assume that Infinity War will make even more than Age of Ultron did in China in its opening weekend. I’m going to predict that it makes US$ 202 million. We shall find out in a couple of weeks.
But we’re not here to talk about that. We’re here to talk about:
Avengers: Infinity War is giving DCEU a big time ass whooping.
It has been slightly less than a week and Infinity War is already the 15th highest grossing comic book movie of all time. That is saying a lot, considering how much money comic book movies have been making since 2008.
As of right now, there are 22 movies based on comic books, including Infinity War, in the top 100 highest grossing movies of all time, worldwide. Out of those 22, seven have raked in more than US$ 1 billion and three (all under the Disney-Marvel banner) have made it into the top 10 — Black Panther, Avengers: Age of Ultron and The Avengers.
In ONE WEEK of its release, Avengers: Infinity War has easily brushed away DCEU’s ensemble movies, Suicide Squad and Justice League. If you told someone 15 years ago, that one day a movie featuring Iron Man, Doctor Strange, and Rocket Raccoon would do better at the global box office than a movie featuring Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman, he/she would have chucked you in a mental asylum.
But the fact that an MCU movie beat a DCEU movie isn’t surprising, given how successful these Marvel movies have been at the box office. What’s interesting is how fast it took Infinity War to fly past Justice League. At the end of its 17 weeks run, Justice League only managed to gross US$ 657.9 million. That’s around US$ 150 million less than what Infinity War grossed in five days. Infinity War has also already outgrossed Suicide Squad (US$ 746 million) and Man of Steel (US$ 668 million), and will overtake Wonder Woman (US$ 821 million) and Batman V Superman (US$ 873 million) within the next couple of days.
But let’s not be a dick and just bash on the DCEU. Avengers: Infinity War is a behemoth that’s trampling all over comic book movies regardless of which camp they’re in. This Avengers threequel has already zoomed past 10 of its Marvel Cinematic Universe buddies at the global box office (7, in the North American box office). And it’s not too crazy to predict that it will knock Captain America: Civil War out of the fifth spot by the end of the week.
The Marvel comics under the Fox banner has never really produced excellent results at the box office. The three highest-grossing X-Men movies worldwide are, Deadpool (US$ 783.1 million), X-Men: Days of Future Past (US$ 747.9 million) and Logan (US$ 619 million). However, there’s also an argument to be made that movies like Logan and Deadpool aren’t even playing the same sport as something like Infinity War or Justice League, choosing instead to focus on smaller stories with smaller budgets.
Infinity War has a clear path ahead of it for the next couple of weeks, it’s only competition being Blumhouse’s crappy Truth or Dare. The real challenge comes May 17th onwards, with the release of Deadpool 2, followed by Solo: A Star Wars Story on the 24th of May. Will Avengers: Infinity War beat Avatar to be the highest grossing movie of all time? I highly doubt it.
