Earth’s mightiest heroes didn’t need an entirely new movie to return to the top of the box office.
“Avengers Endgame: Encore,” a theatrical re-release of Marvel’s 2019 blockbuster “Avengers: Endgame” that adds roughly four minutes of new material, claimed No. 1 at the North American box office this weekend. The reissue outperformed newly released films featuring Brad Pitt and Robert Pattinson.
According to estimates released Sunday, Sept. 27, by Rentrak, “Endgame: Encore” opened to a powerful $26 million in domestic theaters.
That ranks among the largest opening weekends ever recorded for a re-release of an older film. Deadline reports that only the 1997 reissue of “Star Wars,” which debuted with $35.9 million, and the 2011 3D re-release of “The Lion King,” which opened to $30.2 million, performed better without adjusting for inflation. “Endgame: Encore” also surpassed the $25.2 million opening earned by last year’s 20th anniversary re-release of “Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith.”
When “Endgame” first arrived in theaters in 2019, it generated an astonishing $357 million during its domestic opening weekend. That figure remained the record for the biggest U.S. opening weekend ever until this summer, when “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” moved ahead with $360 million.
“Endgame: Encore” was marketed not simply as an opportunity to experience the 2019 blockbuster again on the big screen, but also as a preview of the upcoming “Avengers: Doomsday,” which reaches theaters Dec. 18. The re-release adds four scenes to the film’s conclusion and places them within the credits, creating a direct connection between “Endgame” and “Doomsday.” One of those additions even alters the way “Endgame” concludes by transforming the ending into a cliffhanger that leads into “Doomsday.”
If “Encore” maintains its strong box office performance, the re-release could potentially help “Endgame” reclaim the title of the highest-grossing movie worldwide, without adjusting for inflation. James Cameron’s 2009 science-fiction epic “Avatar” currently leads with $2.92 billion, while “Endgame” has moved closer to that total at $2.885 billion. “Endgame” initially surpassed “Avatar” after its 2019 release to become the world’s highest-grossing film, but “Avatar” regained the position following a 2021 re-release.
The strong performance of the re-release also provides an encouraging sign for “Avengers: Doomsday,” with filmmaking duo Anthony and Joe Russo returning to direct their first Marvel film since “Endgame.” Robert Downey Jr. is likewise returning to the Marvel Cinematic Universe in “Doomsday” after last appearing in “Endgame,” but this time he will portray the villain Doctor Doom. Expectations surrounding “Doomsday” were already extremely high after Marvel’s “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” became the highest-grossing movie ever in North American theaters.
At No. 2 was the successful video-game adaptation “Resident Evil,” which earned another $23 million during its second weekend. That pushed its domestic total to an impressive $103 million. Zach Cregger’s horror reboot was promoted as a movie that would remain more faithful to the spirit of the video games than the earlier films led by Milla Jovovich. It has now become the highest-grossing “Resident Evil” film ever released by a wide margin, with no previous installment earning more than $60 million.
Brad Pitt’s new survival thriller “Heart of the Beast” opened with $20 million domestically, giving it the No. 3 position for the weekend. “Primetime” followed at No. 4. The film stars Pattinson as “To Catch a Predator” host Chris Hansen and launched with $19 million. While that result placed it fourth, it represented a strong start considering the movie reportedly cost $15 million to produce, according to Variety.
Overall, the three-day period was considerably busier than a typical weekend at theaters. Rentrak reported that the total box office for the weekend increased 60.7% compared with the corresponding weekend last year.