Weekend Box Office: Avengers: Endgame Snaps Its Way Back to No. 1 with an Encore
The Marvel re-release's extra scenes proved to be irresistible for fans looking forward to Doomsday, relegating Zach Cregger's Resident Evil to No. 2.
As the 2026 box office is about to cross $8 billion sometime in October, it seems fitting that the top dog this weekend wasn’t the one trying to save Brad Pitt but an “encore” of one of the biggest films ever, one that led the way in 2019, less than a year before the world and its movie theaters had to shut down. The theatrical experience has had to find its footing again ever since, and this may finally be the year that we crack the 11-digit milestone that has eluded us since the year of the Endgame.
King of the Crop: Avengers: Endgame Snaps Its Way Back to No. 1 with an Encore
They say certain things come in threes. That is certainly the case with Avengers: Endgame, as far as current rankings are concerned. Thanks to Spider-Man: Brand New Day, it is now the third-highest grossing domestic first-run release of all-time. Now with the re-issue, dubbed Avengers: Endgame Encore, this weekend, it has grabbed third place on the all-time re-release opening list.
Encore was the top-grossing film of the weekend with $26 million, ranking only behind 1997’s Special Edition of Star Wars ($35.9 million) and Disney’s 3-D version of The Lion King in 2011 among re-release openings. The rest of the top five consists of last year’s 20th anniversary re-release of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith ($25.4 million) and 1997’s Special Edition of The Empire Strikes Back. The top 10 is rounded out by Jurassic Park 3-D ($18.6 million), 1991’s Beauty and the Beast 3-D ($17.7 million), Titanic 3-D ($17.2 million), Finding Nemo 3-D ($16.6 million), and the 1997 Special Edition of Return of the Jedi ($16.2 million).
Tales of the Top 10: Resident Evil Maintains a Healthy Pace, Three New Releases Round Out the Top Five
After becoming the highest-grossing film bearing the name Resident Evil in just three days, Zach Cregger’s reboot dropped 61% in its second weekend to $23.3 million, and it is doing just fine. Its $103.4 million is the sixth-best total for a September opening in its first 10 days, behind Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Infinity Castle ($104.7 million) and ahead of Hotel Transylvania 2 ($90.7 million). That is also more than Retribution, The Final Chapter and Welcome to Raccoon City combined. It’s sophomore weekend was slightly less than The Conjuring: Last Rite’s $25.6 million, and it is currently headed for $140+ million with a shot at reaching $150 million. Cregger’s Weapons had a second weekend of $24.4 million, with $88.5 million after 10 days, and it finished with $151.5 million. Globally Resident Evil is over $196 million.
Brad Pitt had one of last year’s biggest successes with F1: The Movie. He now finds himself on foot in David Ayer’s wilderness survival drama Heart of the Beast. The last time the two teamed up was in 2014 for the WWII tank film Fury, which opened to $23.7 million and finished with nearly $86 million domestic and another $126 million overseas for good measure. Their latest began with $20 million, about on par with Pitt’s last September adventure (in space), Ad Astra, which started with $19 million and just got itself over $50 million. Heart of the Beast’s prospects should be a little better, and it is certainly going to need word of mouth to cover its $82 million budget. Internationally it added a bit over $30 million.
Robert Pattinson and A24 made a great fit earlier this year when the first of his many 2026 films with Zendaya, The Drama, opened to $14.3 million and finished with over $48 million domestic and $132 million globally. Now he steps into the shoes of the infamous Chris Hansen, host of Dateline NBC spin-off To Catch A Predator. (See the documentary Predators for more on this.) But Lance Oppenheim’s feature version with Pattinson, Primetime, just opened to $19.1 million (the second-best opening for a film under 3,000 screens this year after Young Washington’s $19.3 million) and a Certified Fresh 87% Tomatometer score. Not too shabby for the $14.5 million production. Films with an 85-89% Tomatometer score and a B Cinemascore recently have included 28 Years Later, The Northman, The Long Walk, The Menu, The Substance, Crime 101, Hokum, The End of Oak Street, and Missing. Based on that list, Primetime is looking to land in the $45-60 million range.
Animated films have a better track record in September than they do in August, but there does seem to be a ceiling for many of them. Last year’s Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Infinity Castle was an anomaly with its $70.6 million start. After that, you have the first two Hotel Transylvania films, the two Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs films, and The Wild Robot wedged in between as the only animated films this month to open over $30 million. After that you are looking at Transformers One ($24.6 million), Open Season ($23.6 million), Smallfoot ($23.0 million), Paw Patrol: The Mighy Movie ($22.7 million), Storks ($21.3 million), Abominable ($20.6 million), and The Lego Ninjago Movie ($20.4 million). Universal and Dreamworks’ Forgotten Island fell well below with just a $12.8 million start. That is lower than Universal’s late-September release of Gabby’s Dollhouse: The Movie last year ($13.6 million), which went on to gross just $32 million. What an incredible disappointment for a film that went Certified Fresh at 94% with critics.
Two weeks, and out of the top five goes Practical Magic 2, as it grosses $5.6 million in its third weekend. Its 17-day total lies at $59.8 million. These are below Jackass: Number Two numbers: $62.8 million after a $6.5 million third weekend. With both numbers below that pace, PM2 could be looking at the low end of the $70-75 million scale. The $75 million production still hasn’t cracked $100 million worldwide and it is shaping up to be a financial loser (just like the original was back in 1998, unfortunately).
Spider-Man: Brand New Day became the first film in history to cross $950 million domestic, grossing $4.1 million this weekend. Tomorrow, it will become the first film to gross $951 million as well. There are only so many ways to cover the story at this point. It’s the top domestic grosser ever, but it won’t hit a billion (unless Sony does a series of re-releases over time). It will likely remain the third-highest global grosser ever. The only question that remains is whether the Downey Doom Avengers films will be big enough to make this the shortest stint ever as the domestic champion. Worldwide the film is closing in on $2.5 billion.
Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, on the other hand, still has opportunities to position itself higher. After 10 straight weeks in the top five (Zootopia 2 and Barbie were the last two to pull that off), the epic fell to the bottom half with $3.7 million in its 11th weekend, tying Obsession’s 11-week run in the top 10 this year. That brings Odyssey’s total to over $616 million, with eyes on both The Last Jedi ($620.1 million) and Marvel’s The Avengers ($623.3 million), which would put it in 14th place behind, of all films, Barbie ($636.7 million). The Odyssey is just the 16th Hollywood release to gross a cool billion internationally, and now, with $1.130 billion, it has entered the top 10 all time (even with Ne Zha 2 on the list).
Ketchup Entertainment’s Coyote vs. Acme added $1.9 million in its fifth weekend of release, bringing its total to $58.3 million more than if Warner Bros. still had it. That is more money than five of WB’s last 11 releases. Audiences could have done better by this film, but this has still been nice to see in theaters for this stretch. Also sticking around for one more week is Daniel and the Fiery Furnace, whose $1.5 million was good enough to make the list. It has made $6.2 million to date.
Beyond the Top 10: Festival Darlings Debut in Just a Few Theaters
Amazon/MGM’s release of Bassam Tariq’s Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother with Mahershala Ali opened to $199,000 in six theaters. The film expands further over the next several weeks. Sony Pictures Classics’ pick-up from Sundance, Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty! with Rinko Kikuchi, made just $185,000 in 539 theaters. Just this year, SPC has now had their two worst per-theater average openings since May 2021 with Ha-Chan ($343) and Unidentified ($180).
IFC did not do any better this weekend with Michael Dowse’s The Stunt Driver. The film about Canadian daredevil Ken Carter, played by Jay Baruchel, opened to $102,000 in 670 theaters. That’s a per-theater average of just $152, down there with IFC’s release of Chum ($120) and Saccharine ($167) this summer. And this weekend’s Charlie Harper from D.O.A. distributor Row K. The film reportedly made less than $100,000 in 650 theaters. The math puts it with those IFC releases.
On The Vine: Tom Cruise Tries to Save the World Again in Digger
Audiences will get their chance to finally see Tom Cruise in Digger from Oscar-winning director Alejandro González Iñárritu. Can Warner Bros. break their $100 million drought, or is it headed for disappointment? Anne Hathaway appears in her fifth movie this year with Verity, part of the Colleen Hoover universe alongside Dakota Johnson. Then Jessica Rothe and Logan Marshall-Green have to fight off a mythical snake in Beware Boiúna from Lionsgate. See all the upcoming releases here.
Full List of Box Office Results: September 25-27
- Avengers: Endgame Encore – $26.0 million ($26.0 million total)
- Resident Evil – $23.3 million ($103.4 million total)
- Heart of the Beast – $20.0 million ($20.0 million total)
- Primetime – $19.1 million ($19.1 million total)
- Forgotten Island – $12.8 million ($12.8 million total)
- Practical Magic 2 – $5.6 million ($59.8 million total)
- Spider-Man: Brand New Day – $4.1 million ($950.6 million total)
- The Odyssey – $3.7 million ($616.5 million total)
- Coyote vs. Acme – $1.9 million ($58.3 million total)
- Daniel and the Fiery Furnace – $1.5 million ($6.2 million total)
Erik Childress can be heard each week evaluating box office on Business First AM with Angela Miles and his Movie Madness Podcast. [box office figures via Box Office Mojo]
Thumbnail image by ©Marvel Studios
