Sunday Afternoon Update: New industry estimates now place Infinity War‘s weekend box office take at $250 million, surpassing The Force Awakens to become the film with the biggest domestic opening in history. Additionally,the film has pulled in an estimated $380 million in 52 overseas markets for a total worldwide box office take of $630 million.
Original article follows.
There’s no denying that Marvel Studios’ The Avengers: Infinity War has started off the summer blockbuster season with an Earth-shattering explosion at the box office.
As of Saturday evening, industry estimates placed Infinity War as having earned approximately $247.1 million in its opening weekend. This total includes the film’s massive $39 million Thursday evening preview showings. This total far exceeds initial tracking for the film’s opening form several weeks ago which placed box office earnings at closer to $220 million.
That box office haul also puts the film within reach of breaking Star Wars: The Force Awakens‘s record-setting opening of $247.9 million, especially if there is a surge in attendance on Sunday. After Force Awakens, the biggest North American openings belong to Star Wars: The Last Jedi ($220 million) and Jurassic World ($208.8 million).
With the film opening on 4,474 screens in the US, this weekend’s box office total for Infinity War comes to a per screen average of $54,760.
Infinity War is performing exceptionally well overseas with a $178.5 million estimate for the weekend from the numerous foreign territories that the film opened in. The film has yet to open in Russia and China, traditionally two big markets for blockbuster fare such as this. Once they get the film, overseas receipts are sure to climb exponential.
This weekend’s total puts Infinity War as having the highest-grossing opening weekend for a superhero film of all time. The previous record holder was the first Avengers film which brought in $207.4 million in it’s three day premier. Earlier this year, Marvel’s Black Panther opened to a weekend of $202 million. These are the only three superhero films to cross the $200 million mark on their opening weekend.
The key factor to such a robust weekend is that the studio has been promoting Infinity War as the culmination of ten years worth of storylines threaded throughout their various franchises and would see the heroes from across those films teaming up to stop the universe-threatening menace of the intergalactic despot Thanos. Adding a Rotten Tomatoes score 84% Fresh and a CinemaScore of a solid “A”, the film is certainly due for repeat business that will help carry it over the next few weeks.
After the number one spot, there is not surprisingly a large drop off to the number two position, which is occupied by the horror film A Quiet Place, which is pulling an estimated $10 million.
Interestingly, Marvel’s Black Panther, which opened in February, is still going strong at cineplexes, coming in with $3.8 million for the number five spot. This marks the first time that a studio has had two franchise installments in the top five simultaneously.
