Avengers: Endgame is upon us & it’s ready to take all of our money. In fact, according to estimated pre-sales, the movie has already attacked our wallets.
Advanced ticket sales are estimated to be north of $120 million and some box office experts say they’re as high as $140 million. These numbers wouldn’t exactly be a surprise considering Avengers: Endgame shattered the first 24-hour advance tickets sales record set by Star Wars: The Force Awakens on Fandango four years ago and other exhibitor ticketing outlets. Before the Force Awakens opened to $247.9 million, its pre-sales were north of $100 million.
AMC, Regal & Cinemark are said to be driving 75% of Endgame’s sales. Fandango reported this month that it sold out thousands of Endgame showtimes on its website and that theater owners were scrambling to post new showtimes and screens to meet fan demand (some as early as 4 AM and 6:30 AM for its opening day Friday). In its first seven days of presales on Fandango, Endgame sold five times as many tickets as last year’s Avengers: Infinity War.
Now, I’m the middle of finishing my box office predictions for the site & I was leaning on an opening of $285-290 million. I was worried about the 3-hour runtime affecting sales a bit but now reports are saying $300 million is in play. According to various outlets who have busted out some crafty math skills, they specified that four or five showtimes a day of Endgame on five to eight screens per location, at a 70% capacity at 12,000 U.S. auditoriums, could make that box office milestone. Needless to say, no other movie matters this weekend.
