Avengers: Infinity War is a film 10 years in the making, so it should come as no surprise that the first box office projection estimates the blockbuster team up to have the highest opening weekend ever in the history of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Riding high off
Black Panther's strong box office performance, Box Office Pro projects
Avengers: Infinity War will open in the range somewhere between $200-$235 million domestically. Anything north of $207.4 million would make
Infinity War the largest domestic box office opening in MCU history. Currently,
Marvel's The Avengers holds the top spot ($207.4 million), followed by this year's
Black Panther ($202 million).
More specifically, Box Office Pro estimates a $215 million domestic opening which would not only top the MCU's record books, but make it the third biggest domestic opening of all time, behind only
Star Wars: The Last Jedi ($220 million) and
Star Wars: The Force Awakens ($248 million). But Marvel has surprised us before, so don't rule out the possibility a new domestic record just yet - especially given the hype surrounding the film.
Along with the record setting opening, Box Office Pro projects
Infinity War to finish with a domestic total of $538 million. This would make it Marvel's second best domestic haul, but well behind
Marvel's The Avengers' $623 million total. This is likely due to doubt in
Infinity War's legs. As the Box Office Pro explains:
But, if the film leaves moviegoers on a hard cliffhanger in combination with possible deaths of beloved characters that Marvel films have generally avoided up to this point, staying power could turn out to be more frontloaded like that of the aforementioned Ultron and Civil War, as opposed to the more widely crowd-pleasing first Avengers, Black Panther, first Guardians, first Iron Man, etc. that displayed incredible legs by tripling their already-massive opening weekend grosses.
That being said,
Infinity War has
incredible momentum leading up to its release. As mentioned by Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige,
Infinity War is the culimation of every story the studio has brought to the big screen so far, and fans are eager to see their favorite heroes face off against Thanos and his forces in a showdown that'll have long-lasting ripple effects on the MCU moving forward.
Directed by Joe and Anthony Russo,
Avengers: Infinity War is now set to hit theaters April 27, 2018.