When Avengers: Endgame made its box office debut, it most certainly stormed out of the gate. After all, it’s not every day that you see a movie rake in $1.2 billion worldwide over the course of its first weekend. With impressive figures like that, we all expected for it to usurp Avatar in short order.
Right now, the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s latest triumph sits at $2.62 billion worldwide, with Avatar still reigning supreme at $2.78 billion. And though that may seem closer on the surface, Endgame is unfortunately slowing down. In fact, if it does surpass James Cameron’s cash cow, the big moment may not arrive until Labor Day in early September.
In the words of Shawn Robbins, chief analyst at BoxOffice Media, “It’s slowed down more than we all expected.” Complementing that statement rather eloquently was Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at ComScore, saying, “Avatar was all about the marathon and now it’s about the sprint.”
Believe it or not, those analyses are very accurate. Whereas Avatar amassed its box office take over time, Endgame blew up multiplexes like nobody’s business very early on. It’s actually fair to assume that it could fall slightly short in the end, as many True Believers who went back for repeated viewings likely did so within the first two weekends. And now with stiff competition such as John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, Aladdin, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, X-Men: Dark Phoenix and Toy Story 4 poised to capture the imaginations of moviegoers, well, we’re not expecting a significant resurgence.
Personally, I’d like to witness a new king crowned, but we’ll just have to wait and see. After all, it’s fair to say that most of us may already own Avengers: Endgame on Blu-ray or DVD by the time Labor Day rolls around, but fingers remain crossed.