Last week, IMDb released a ranking of the most anticipated films of 2019 based on data from their site, and it came as a slight surprise to see Captain Marvel ranked at the top spot, just ahead of Avengers: Endgame, not to mention the complete lack of Star Wars: Episode IX in the Top 10. This new ranking from Fandango, on the other hand, took the more direct approach of simply polling more than 3,500 moviegoers on their most anticipated releases, and the result seems a little more in line with what you’d probably expect.
In this particular Top 10, Endgame takes the number one spot, followed by Captain Marvel. In third place, meanwhile, is Episode IX, which may well have suffered slightly from the divided reception to Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
After that, the MCU also takes fourth place with Spider-Man: Far From Home (another curious absentee from the IMDb ranking), while Toy Story 4 slots in at number five. Going from six to ten, the rest of this very Disney-heavy list is rounded out by Glass, The Lion King, Aladdin, Dumbo, and Joker. But going back to that number one spot, Fandango’s Managing Editor Erik Davis has some ideas on why filmgoers are so excited for the sequel to Avengers: Infinity War:
“There’s 10 years of investment built into this series. Fans are dying to see how it ends. They were definitely happy with the last ‘Avengers,’ but it was a bit of a hard pill to swallow, as entertaining as it was. … Do they bring these characters back? This film is going to set the stage for whatever the next iteration of these Marvel movies is.”
It’s hard to disagree with anything Davis says here, with Endgame set to serve as the culmination point of the first twenty-two movies in the superhero saga, while also resolving the most talked-about cliffhanger of 2018.
Of course, Captain Marvel is looking to be a key chapter in MCU history itself, and based on the reactions to the film’s two trailers, it’s clear that the flick will be arriving in theaters on March 8th, 2019, on a wave of hype. After that Avengers: Endgame comes out on April 26th, though the fans who voted for Star Wars: Episode IX still have a long wait before the film drops on December 20th.