By now, you’ve heard that Avengers: Endgame earned over $356 million at the U.S. box office during its first three full days in theaters, and a total of over $1.2 billion, worldwide in the same time frame.
What movie studios fail to do is report tickets sold. They love seeing box office records broken. However, a movie like E.T. that earned $359 million during its entire first theatrical run in 1982/83 opened when movie ticket prices averaged $2.92, and opened in only 1103 theaters its first weekend, is no comparison.
What this means for Avengers: Endgame is that it sold just under 40 million tickets in the United States, alone, during its first three days in theaters, based on the $9 ticket price average of 2019. (That factors in senior citizen, children, IMAX and 3D, ticket prices and cities like NYC, where one ticket can cost $34).
There are 327 million people that live in the United States currently. Of that number, 50 million are under the age of 11, (of which the vast majority didn’t see the film). There are over 45 million people in the United States over the age of 65, hardly the target audience of Avengers: Endgame. Factoring in all of that data, nearly 1 out of 5 people aged 12-65 went to see Avengers: Endgame in theaters during its first three days in theaters.
How was that possible? Most of the 4,662 movie theaters playing Avengers: Endgame showed it on 75% or more of their screens. Avengers: Endgame accounted for 80% of this past weekend’s box office total.
Will the film be able to become the highest grossing movie of all time in the U.S. or worldwide? Star Wars: The Force Awakens holds that title, with $936,662,225. And Avatar holds the #1 spot worldwide, with $2,787,965,087. Whether or not Avengers: Endgame breaks either or both of those records depends on whether or not it does the type of repeat business that Star Wars and Avatar did.
Do stay tuned.
Avengers Endgame Sells 40 Million Tickets in U.S First Three Days in Theaters.
