(Photo by © Marvel/ © Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)
In its seventh week, Avengers: Infinity War remained in the top five on the box office chart. The mega Marvel crossover is still going strong and will soon pass its fellow franchise installment, Black Panther, as the no. 1 movie of 2018 in the U.S. This isn’t surprising given how epic, hotly anticipated, and star-studded the movie is, and the fact that it’s the culmination of an entire cinematic universe. But still.
In less than two months, Infinity War has grossed more than $2 billion worldwide, and we’re taking this occasion to highlight all the records the movie has met or broken so far. Here…we…go. (Note: unless indicated, all records represented are for domestic release and are not adjusted for inflation.)
Avengers: Infinity War proved to be a major box office contender straight out of the gate with its record-breaking debut. Posting a first weekend take of $258 million, the movie passed Star Wars: The Force Awakens to become the opening weekend champion in North America, without adjusting for inflation. Even with the adjustment, Infinity War came in a very, very close second place.
Unlike Star Wars, Marvel also came out on top around the world. While its overseas debut ($383 million) was still lower than The Fate of the Furious, when you combine its foreign haul with its record-breaking domestic success, Avengers: Infinity War managed to take the overall worldwide opening throne away from the Fast and Furious sequel by immediately grossing $640 million globally.
Nineteenth time’s the charm when it comes to a lot of Marvel’s box office records, and advance ticket sales are among those broken by Avengers: Infinity War, the nineteenth installment of the MCU. According to Fandango, in just six hours the movie surpassed previous Marvel champ, Black Panther, as well as all-time superhero record holder Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
Avengers: Infinity War has proven it’s more than a front-loaded success. In fact, its Thursday night preview grosses were lower than two Star Wars movies and one Harry Potter film. But for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Infinity War proved the most anticipated installment yet, earning $39 million in its first evening, passing Avengers: Age of Ultron’s $27.6 for the honor.
(Photo by © Marvel/ © Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)
The first-day gross (including Thursday night’s figures) for Avengers: Infinity War fell short of Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ record, but the Marvel movie dominated the following day. The first Saturday of its release, Infinity War grossed $82 million, which was enough to beat not just The Force Awakens but also the reigning second-day champ Jurassic World.
Following its record feat on Saturday, Avengers: Infinity War also hit a milestone on its first Sunday, which surely allowed it to break the opening weekend record overall. Grossing $69 million that single day, the movie surpassed Star Wars: The Force Awakens and fellow MCU installment Black Panther to earn another crown in its first weekend.
This may seem like it’s getting too specific, but Avengers: Infinity War also posted a pretty great first Monday gross with $25 million. Considering this came in the month of April and not on a holiday Monday, like Black Panther, or in the summer like Jurassic World, or around Christmastime like the previous three Star Wars movies, this is another significant achievement.
We’re getting granular, we know. Continuing its first week, on the fifth, sixth, and seventh days of release, Avengers: Infinity War was able to dominate the records for best Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday gross by an MCU installment. Its Monday gross had fallen below that of Black Panther (which had been on a holiday), but the next few days it topped the solo superhero movie’s box office takes.
Opening weekend is a big deal for movies these days, but true blockbusters maintain their power through subsequent weekends. While it did have the highest-grossing debut of all time, Avengers: Infinity War fell below Star Wars: The Force Awakens in its second weekend. Still, the addition of $115 million that follow-up frame is still impressive as second-best.
In posting the best opening weekend ever with $257 million — the first time a movie hit above $250 million in its debut — Avengers: Infinity War was obviously the fastest movie to hit that $250 million mark. Thanks to its record-breaking Saturday and Sunday, the Marvel movie also was fastest to hit the $150 million and $200 million milestones.
For the next major domestic box office marker, Avengers: Infinity War tied with Star Wars: The Force Awakens by reaching $300 million in just five days. Technically, The Force Awakens is considered the fastest movie to reach the milestone, because its gross at the time was $325 million compared to Infinity War’s $306 million. But the timing is otherwise matched.
(Photo by ©Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures/Lucasfilm Ltd.)
While $300 million is a big domestic milestone, the billion-dollar mark is the first major goal for many tentpole worldwide grosses these days. Avengers: Infinity War became the 34th movie to reach $1 billion globally, but it did so more quickly than other movie, in just 11 days of release, compared to previous record holder Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ 12 days.
Reaching another half-billion dollars has proved more difficult for movies historically, as Avengers: Infinity War is only the seventh movie to reach this next marker. Again, the Marvel movie did so in the shortest amount of time, hitting $1.5 billion in just 18 days — one week following its hitting $1 billion. Star Wars: The Force Awakens had taken 19 days to earn the same amount.
Another rare feat, the $2 billion marker has only been reached by four movies, now including Avengers: Infinity War. While still hitting the milestone more quickly than Star Wars: The Force Awakens, its 48-day jaunt to $2 billion was just a smidgen too slow to take another crown, as Avatar previously reached earned this amount in 47 days.
Avengers: Infinity War has a bit more to make at home to top this year’s domestic chart and take the number one slot away from fellow MCU movie Black Panther. But worldwide, Infinity War is already far and away the biggest release of 2018 worldwide with a global gross of $2 billion compared to Black Panther’s second-place amount of $1.3 billion.
The Avengers, Marvel’s first major crossover event movie, was a longtime box office record-holder for comic book adaptations. Earlier this year, fellow MCU title Black Panther surpassed the 2012 release as the all-time highest-grossing superhero movie domestically, and recently Avengers: Infinity War became highest-grossing Avengers installment specifically. As mentioned above, it still has to catch Black Panther at the domestic box office.
The first Avengers movie may have received better reviews (with a 92% Tomatometer score compared to Avengers: Infinity Wars’ 83%), but fans seem to prefer the latest installment of the superhero team crossover series. Both The Avengers and Infinity War currently have a 91% Audience Score, yet the latter’s average user rating is a bit higher: 4.5/5 compared to 4.4/5. (That said, the first film has more than 1 million user reviews; the latter has around 44,000 so far.) We won’t bother comparing it to Avengers: Age of Ultron, though, as that sequel was less popular than the other two in all regards. Compared to other MCU movies, Infinity War is only less popular overall than Captain America: The Winter Soldier and the first Guardians of the Galaxy, yet its average rating of 4.5/5 is still higher than all others.
Black Panther is the greater moneymaker at home as far as both the MCU and superhero movies go, but in the global arena Avengers: Infinity War is tops. At $2 billion and climbing, the Marvel crossover is in fourth place overall worldwide, behind Avatar, Titanic, and Star Wars: The Force Awakens. But it is first for superhero movies, topping the first Avengers by half a billion.
