If you’re like me and stopped by one of your local theaters Thursday night to try and score tickets to see Avengers: Endgame this weekend, you no doubt were greeted by the same sight that I was. Despite the late hour, pretty much every parking space was full. An insane, peak Christmas season-level of traffic as fans flooded through the doors at their earliest opportunity, which came Thursday, to finally enjoy Marvel’s three-hour pop culture magnum opus about Earth’s mightiest heroes.
And not only was this a scene that played out around the country at Endgame’s preview night showings on Thursday. We also just learned that the movie delivered the biggest domestic preview night box office of all time, racking up an extraordinary $60 million.
As Variety notes, Endgame edged past Star Wars: The Force Awakens (which earned $57 million in 2015) to become the top domestic preview night earner ever. Imax showings also helped drive that total a little, bringing in almost $5 million at more than 400 locations.
Endgame will no doubt hit a fresh record this weekend, when the fourth and final Avengers movie opens in more than 4,600 domestic theaters — the biggest wide release at the box office ever in North America. Fittingly, the movie will be competing with itself to try and set its next record, since Avengers: Infinity War is the current record-holder for the biggest weekend opening total in North America.
Around the world, meanwhile, the story is pretty much the same. Endgame has already taken in more than $300 million in the first two days of its global release in almost 50 markets, with its $154 million earned in China helping power that total.
Per Variety, Endgame earned an impressive $107 million on opening day alone in China. That was followed by $15.3 million earned in the UK, another of the most lucrative international markets, as well as South Korea and Australia close behind, with $14.2 million and $13.9 million, respectively.
