'Avengers: Infinity War' destroys box office records with $257.69 million US debut and $640.5 million global opening

If you're the kind of person who follows box office tracking and pre-sale ticket numbers, the success of Avengers: Infinity War is no surprise whatsoever. Going into last weekend, it was a question of how big Marvel's giant team-up extravaganza would be when the film kicked off this year's summer movie season on April 27. Some thought it would fall short of February's Black Panther, others thought it had an outside shot at breaking Star Wars: The Force Awakens' opening weekend record, and I even floated the idea of a $300 million domestic opening. Marvel had billed this as the culmination of a decade of work, and that marketing campaign was generating huge levels of hype. In the end, when I made my prediction on April 12, I settled on $255 million. While I initially had planned to update that closer to release, I never did. Which is surprisingly a good thing- I was right on the money the first time around.

Avengers: Infinity War toppled J.J. Abrams' Star Wars: The Force Awakens to grab the title for the biggest opening weekend of all time, grossing $257.69 million in its first three days. That's almost $10 million more than Force Awakens' $247.9 million, but if you're someone who loves to bring inflation into the mix, the seventh chapter in the Star Wars saga still reigns supreme with $261 million. Beyond that gargantuan opening frame, Infinity War took down plenty of other records this weekend. It made $39 million on Thursday night, the highest total for a superhero film and the third highest preview gross behind only the last two Star Wars movies. With that Thursday cash included, the film grossed $106.3 million on Friday, second only to The Force Awakens.

But while Rey and Kylo Ren had the early lead to keep their record intact, the Marvel heroes were utterly dominant throughout the rest of the weekend. Infinity War took in $82.1 million on Saturday, which was more than enough to defeat Jurassic World's prior record of $69.6 million. Finally, the Avengers capped off the weekend with $69.2 million on Sunday, defeating The Force Awakens' previous record of $60.5 million. Despite a giant Friday and huge fan anticipation, Infinity War was not nearly as front-loaded as some had feared, and it could be gearing up for a dominant run over the next few weeks. As a result, Infinity War has hit the $150 million, $200 million, and $250 million marks faster than any film in history.

To throw in a few other records demolished by the Avengers, we should note that Infinity War opened in 4,474 theaters, the second widest opening in history behind only Despicable Me 3. This means the superhero smackdown opened in over 300 more theaters than The Force Awakens. That resulted in a slight discrepancy in the per theater average, as Infinity War earned $57,599 per location compared to The Force Awakens' $59,982. Just another small stat to put this debut in the context of other major openings. Beyond that, Infinity War obviously had the highest spring and April opening, annihilating previous debuts by Disney's own Beauty and the Beast ($174.7 million) and Universal's Furious 7 ($147.1 million), respectively. 

In addition to smashing records in the U.S. and Canada, Thanos and company ruled the worldwide box office as well. With a genuinely staggering $640.5 million, Infinity War hopped over The Fate of the Furious' $541.9 million for the largest global debut in history. While Dominic Toretto and his furious pals still hold the record for the biggest international opening ($443.1 million), they also had the luxury of opening in China and Russia, two crucial territories for the global market. If Infinity War had opened last week in those two countries, we could have seen a total worldwide opening in excess of $800 million, a number that is truly mind-boggling. 

So what kind of final tally are we looking at for Infinity War? $1 billion globally is a lock, and it's merely a question of how close it can get to $2 billion. With little information on Box Office Mojo, it's difficult to exactly predict what the foreign number for the film will be. But based on Age of Ultron's $946.4 million international total and the growth of the overseas markets in the last three years alone, it's easy for me to assume that Infinity War will become the seventh film to gross more than a billion dollars overseas alone. Considering its #2 finish on the international opening weekend chart, it could end up playing stronger than The Force Awakens and finish with $1.3-1.5 billion. But that ultimately depends on whether or not fans come back for repeat viewings, something that could be diminished by the film's downer ending. 

The same goes for Infinity War's domestic total. We'll get a better picture of where the third chapter in the Avengers saga will land after next weekend, which could see either a strong hold thanks to little competition or a giant drop. Even with a depressing finale, fans are flocking back to theaters to catch the little details and for the audience reactions, so it's not hard for me to imagine Infinity War keeping up the momentum until Deadpool 2 arrives on May 18. I don't think the film will match Black Panther's spectacular 3.4 multiplier (if it did, it would gross $878 million), nor will it come close to the massive holiday legs of The Force Awakens (3.77 multiplier, theoretical gross of $973 million, the highest of all time). But a multiplier between Age of Ultron and the original Avengers would put it between $618 and $774 million, enough to make it one of the top five films in history. In a best case scenario, it tops Avatar and ends up just shy of The Force Awakens' record. In a worst case situation, it likely still becomes only the seventh film to pass $600 million in the U.S.

Either way, this is another spectacular hit for Disney and Marvel. Can they top it next year with Avengers 4?

All box office data via Box Office Mojo
Images: IMDb/Marvel