It’s never been done before. According to BoxOfficeMojo it’s opening on 4400 locations this weekend. That would be $68,181.82 per location.
But there’s locations and there’s locations. So places have it playing 100 times over the weekend. My own local multiplex - one of several in the area - is showing it 30 times per day between standard, 3D and RPX.
I think Disney’s thinking they can break the record. Right now the highest domestic opening weekends are:
Avengers: Infinity War: $257MM
Star Wars: TFA: $247MM
Star Wars: TLJ: $220MM
Jurassic World: $208MM
The Avengers: $207MM
Aside: Good Lord. Other than Jurassic World you have to drill down to #12 to find a non-Disney release.
So can it get there? And can it get to the #1 worldwide release? Rumors are out there of a more than $100 million earn just in China alone this weekend. To take the worldwide mark it would have to earn $641 million. That would, of course, be passing Infinity War.
I think it’ll be the number one opening weekend ever both domestic and world wide. I don’t think it’ll break $300MM.
There might be 20% growth from infinity wars but that seems hard to imagine since I doubt they’ve created that many new fans at this point. The only way that happens is if it is so good that they get 20% more rewatchers. I’m hearing good things so far but that seems like a stretch.
Easily. At this point I would consider 500m an even shot. This is being shown on WAY more screens than even IW was. Some theaters have it on every single screen. And it’s still hard to find tickets.
Just checking the weekend schedule at the local dodecaplex: over 50 screenings between Friday and Sunday. Anybody who wants to see a movie this weekend that is NOT “Endgame” is pretty much screwed.
Or to have so much hype that even people who normally wait for the BluRay (like me) will finally get off their asses and go to the theater. I personally won’t, but I imagine a non-trivial number could materialize.
Pre-sales nearly sold out all the local theaters Thursday through Sunday. I went in 2 days after pre-sales started, and had to check nearly a dozen theaters to find two seats (a) together and (b) not in the first two rows. That included early morning and mid-afternoon shows. Finally found tickets, so now I just need to plan out when to take a bathroom break. I hear anything in the last hour is out.
Actually I saw non-spoilery articles with suggestions for when to take bathroom breaks. (And without spoiling it, can someone tell me if I need to sit through the entire credits to catch all of the added scenes?)
I intend to watch it but I’m not watching it opening weekend because I know how busy it will be.
If you assume $10 per ticket that’s 30 million tickets. That may not be doable in a country of 330 million. Tickets are probably higher though.
On opening weekends for blockbuster films I wonder how many ticket sales are from superfans watching the movie 5+ times. Do 5% of viewers make up 50% of ticket sales, that kind of thing.