NEW DELHI: A Hong Konger thrashed for revealing spoilers. A Chinese woman hospitalized after a nervous breakdown while watching it. Videos of Filipinos racing up escalators to grab tickets. And cinemas running the movie night and day to cash in on the frenzy.
All par for the course for Avengers: Endgame, the grand finale in the Marvel superhero franchise that opened to packed audiences worldwide, becoming the first movie ever to earn more than $1 billion in its opening weekend.
According to trade website Box Office Mojo, the movie, which has earned $1.2 billion so far, has already become the 18th highest grossing film of all time, and touching the $2.7 billion mark achieved by top ranker Avatar is not entirely impossible.
More than a fourth of Endgame’s collections came from China, where the Anthony and Joe Russo-directed film earned a colossal $330.5 million during its first five days at the box office beginning Wednesday, crushing opening weekend records of any local or Hollywood film. In India, the film made ₹157 crore over a three-day weekend, the highest opening ever for a Hollywood film and currently lagging behind only Bahubali 2: The Conclusion, the highest grossing Indian film till date that made ₹385 crore in the first three days.
The Marvel brand is well established in India, with its previous instalment Avengers: Infinity War collecting ₹227.43 crore at the box office. Endgame is set to easily surpass that number in the first week itself, according to film trade experts.
A spokesperson for digital payments firm Paytm, which also sells movie tickets, said it was expecting to generate ₹100 crore from Endgame ticket sales on its platform in the first week. The spokesperson added that 55% of the contribution was coming from local language versions of the movie.
Endgame has also seen a 40% higher contribution from audiences in the age group of 18-24 years compared with regular films, according to Paytm.
As the name suggests, Endgame is about the showdown between Marvel’s superheroes and evil demigod Thanos that everyone has been waiting for, especially since the Infinity War cliffhanger. Add to that a mix of crazy action and universal emotions and you have something for the heart as well as the mind, according to experts.
“Be it the humour or sentiments, these are things everyone can relate to. Plus if you see, the storytelling has a very Indian connect (the Avengers are all fighting to get some precious stones back), though entertainment knows no language," said trade analyst Taran Adarsh, calling the film a roller coaster and joyride.
India is a market that Hollywood can’t take lightly any more, film critic Shubhra Gupta said, referring to the success of films such as Endgame in the country.
“This is a franchise that has a faithful fan following in the 18-25 age group; so when the first Avengers movie came out, these guys would have been in their pre-teens," said Gupta, pointing to the journey that fans have been through with the movies. Endgame is an emotional culmination for them.
Film critic Baradwaj Rangan said there is a comic book quality to the film, coupled with some humorous moments.
“It’s Bahubali-esque in the sense that it combines mythology with fantasy, adventure and a bit of sadness. And though the world is supposed to be at stake, it’s not a serious film. It percolates down to the grassroots," he added.
