# Has a movie ever been as anticipated as Avengers: Endgame **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 4, 2019, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-movie-ever-been-as-anticipated-as-avengers-endgame/828919 "2019-02-04T01:11:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2019, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-movie-ever-been-as-anticipated-as-avengers-endgame/828919/61 "2019-02-05T14:19:26Z")
If that’s what this is about then why doesn’t it just say “popular” or “commercially successful” in the thread title? If sales figures are a proxy here, there’s really nothing to discuss. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2019, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-movie-ever-been-as-anticipated-as-avengers-endgame/828919/62 "2019-02-05T15:06:51Z")
I’m not saying that because they’re popular & commercially successful, they’re therefore the most anticipated. But it is evidence in that direction, isn’t it? And there are people saying things like “Oh, there are Avengers movies?” and “There’s only a small group of fans who care about Avengers movies” which is clearly untrue. If “Endgame” breaks opening day records, would that at least be evidence that it was eagerly anticipated? Or would you claim that’s irrelevant, and all those opening day people just happened to pick Endgame when they arrived at the theater? ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2019, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-movie-ever-been-as-anticipated-as-avengers-endgame/828919/63 "2019-02-05T15:20:04Z")
Dang, the rom-com is sold out. We’re gonna have to go see Endgame! ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2019, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-movie-ever-been-as-anticipated-as-avengers-endgame/828919/64 "2019-02-05T15:21:34Z")
> [@bucketybuck](#): > > I also think using youtube views as a measure of anticipation would be inaccurate. I mean, I have no real anticipation for this movie but I’ve still seen the trailer on youtube, it was on the homepage when I was browsing one day. Doesn’t mean a thing except that I saw a link and clicked it. There’s a difference between “some people watched it because on the homepage” and “it had 60 million more views in the first 24 hours than any other video in YouTube history” ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2019, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-movie-ever-been-as-anticipated-as-avengers-endgame/828919/65 "2019-02-05T15:27:27Z")
I’m just not seeing where this huge anticipation for Endgame is supposed to be happening. People seem to be a lot more pumped about Captain Marvel. ---
**Author:** ![bucketybuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/898d66/32.png) [@bucketybuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bucketybuck)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2019, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-movie-ever-been-as-anticipated-as-avengers-endgame/828919/66 "2019-02-05T15:39:14Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > Just to point out, that the 3 Avengers movies are the 4th, 6th, & 8th highest grossing [movies of all time](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/world/). Black Panther is 9, for a total of 40% of the top 10 being MCU movies. No other movie franchise has more than one movie in the top 10. > > In the USA, it’s [similar](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/domestic.htm), Black Panther is 3, Avengers & Infinity Wars are 4 & 7 (Ultron is down at 16), and Star Wars is the only other franchise with 2 or more (Force Awakens 1, Last Jedi 8). > > So lets not say it’s just a “small group of fans”. More people watch MCU movies than damn near anything else. And? Aquaman made a billion dollars, Jurassic world and Furious 7 even more than that again so I know full well that lots of people go see these movies. But thats a totally different thing to whether or not people spent ten years anticipating this unknown movie, which was the point that was made. A small group of fans might have been waiting for this since the very beginning, the rest of the world never heard of an infinity gauntlet but went to see the big movie anyway. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2019, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-movie-ever-been-as-anticipated-as-avengers-endgame/828919/67 "2019-02-05T15:45:45Z")
> [@DigitalC](#): > > I’m just not seeing where this huge anticipation for Endgame is supposed to be happening. People seem to be a lot more pumped about Captain Marvel. There’s literally a 175 post thread below this one about it. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2019, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-movie-ever-been-as-anticipated-as-avengers-endgame/828919/68 "2019-02-05T16:20:57Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > I’m not saying that because they’re popular & commercially successful, they’re therefore the most anticipated. But it is evidence in that direction, isn’t it? And there are people saying things like “Oh, there are Avengers movies?” and “There’s only a small group of fans who care about Avengers movies” which is clearly untrue. > > If “Endgame” breaks opening day records, would that at least be evidence that it was eagerly anticipated? Or would you claim that’s irrelevant, and all those opening day people just happened to pick Endgame when they arrived at the theater? Can you write a definition of “most anticipated” that is distinguishable from “popular,” “commercially successful,” etc.? To me, “most anticipated” means something emotional in terms of the society at large, something that exists as a topic of conversation away from forums that are specifically devoted to it. I experienced a lot of people talking about preparing for releases in the Star Trek, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, etc., franchises. Actually _anticipating_ them–what’s going to happen, I can’t wait, this is going to be great … I just don’t hear that happening for Marvel. Sure, folks will go see it, but that doesn’t make it “anticipated,” unless you can define that term specifically for the purposes of this thread. ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2019, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-movie-ever-been-as-anticipated-as-avengers-endgame/828919/69 "2019-02-05T16:26:55Z")
> [@AlsoNamedBort](#): > > There’s literally a 175 post thread below this one about it. Started right after Infinity War because of how huge THAT movie was. Endgame is more of an epilogue to the huge event that was Infinity War. ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2019, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-movie-ever-been-as-anticipated-as-avengers-endgame/828919/70 "2019-02-05T16:53:54Z")
> [@XT](#): > > But this movie? It’s been on every fans mind…where is all this going? What’s going to happen? How is going to live, who is going to die? Who else is going to join the universe…and how? It’s all going towards this one movie…all that fan hype and hope, all the fear and expectation. This is the big one (even though, personally, I’m currently psyched for Captain Marvel…but End game is like a slow simmer on the back burner, ready to explode once we get closer… Honestly this sounds like pretty much every Marvel movie that has come out. “Where’s it all going, what’s going to happen?” Well, some bad guy has a plan to do bad things and the heroes are going to try to stop him. “Who’s going to live, who’s going to die?” I don’t know, does anybody need to die? Aren’t the heroes in peril in every movie? “Who’s going to join the universe?” Probably more characters. They’ve been adding characters all along. Is this new? I’m sure the movie will be a hit, will make a billion dollars, and everyone will go see it, but that seems to be pretty much all the Avengers movies. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2019, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-movie-ever-been-as-anticipated-as-avengers-endgame/828919/71 "2019-02-05T17:32:21Z")
> [@bucketybuck](#): > > If you were talking about The Avengers I might agree with you, that was the culmination of everything that had come before and was something genuinely different. But outside of some small group of fans nobody has been waiting for this for ten years, this is just another marvel tent pole blockbuster, little different to Ultron or Civil war. There were other blockbusters recently, there will be another out again in about ten minutes, thats just the way it is these days. > > I also think using youtube views as a measure of anticipation would be inaccurate. I mean, I have no real anticipation for this movie but I’ve still seen the trailer on youtube, it was on the homepage when I was browsing one day. Doesn’t mean a thing except that I saw a link and clicked it. It’s always going to boil down to this sort of thing. Folks that aren’t into it will shrug and say what’s the big deal…just another ‘tent pole blockbuster’ that makes billions…meh. 😛 I’m sure that to many in this thread they haven’t been anticipating this, but saying no one ‘outside of some small group of fans’ (numbering millions if not more) is kind of silly. No one who isn’t thrilled with the Marvel movies was thinking of it, but I’m guessing that this list is smaller than the ‘small group of fans’ one that has. IMHO and all, I think that this movie has been highly anticipated since before Infinity War, which has ramped it up several notches since then. For folks who aren’t into it, no…it’s not that anticipated and they will probably go and watch it anyway but it won’t be a big deal. I know plenty of folks who feel or felt the same way about the Star Wars movies. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2019, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-movie-ever-been-as-anticipated-as-avengers-endgame/828919/72 "2019-02-05T17:40:16Z")
> [@Hampshire](#): > > Honestly this sounds like pretty much every Marvel movie that has come out. “Where’s it all going, what’s going to happen?” Well, some bad guy has a plan to do bad things and the heroes are going to try to stop him. “Who’s going to live, who’s going to die?” I don’t know, does anybody need to die? Aren’t the heroes in peril in every movie? > “Who’s going to join the universe?” Probably more characters. They’ve been adding characters all along. Is this new? > I’m sure the movie will be a hit, will make a billion dollars, and everyone will go see it, but that seems to be pretty much all the Avengers movies. Sounds like every movie franchise…well, except the whole lot of folks going to see it and it making billions part. But every movie that isn’t some artsy one that wins tons of awards and has about a thousand people go see it is of a similar vein especially if it’s a series or a franchise. If you aren’t a fan, then those questions are trivial and you really don’t care enough to think about it. I get it…many of you are meh about the whole franchise and just don’t care (bet some of you will go see it anyway though :p). It’s similar to how many folks feel or felt about Star Wars, or the Star Trek reboots, LotR / Hobbit trilogy, or the original Avatar or any other big name blockbuster. Some folks were excited, or speculative and anticipatory about the follow on sequels in the cases where there were follow on’s, others were like meh. ---
**Author:** ![typoink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecb155/32.png) [@typoink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/typoink)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2019, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-movie-ever-been-as-anticipated-as-avengers-endgame/828919/73 "2019-02-05T17:44:21Z")
> [@DigitalC](#): > > Started right after Infinity War because of how huge THAT movie was. Endgame is more of an epilogue to the huge event that was Infinity War. And I think it got a big boost because Infinity War was just really impressively good. A LOT of folks, myself included, had a big dose of Marvel Fatigue and the unoriginal feel of Avengers 2 (and IMO Civil War) left me assuming Infinity War was going to be…fine. Like, just another Marvel blockbuster with maybe a few course corrections and a few big fights. And IW WAS that, but it also had a ton of surprisingly interesting character moments, a story that kept me completely engaged, and the biggest, most-aggressive cliffhanger they’ve ever done. I was pretty much ready to be done with Marvel movies for a while, but IW brought me back in completely. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2019, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-movie-ever-been-as-anticipated-as-avengers-endgame/828919/74 "2019-02-05T18:19:21Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > Just to point out, that the 3 Avengers movies are the 4th, 6th, & 8th highest grossing [movies of all time](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/world/). Black Panther is 9, for a total of 40% of the top 10 being MCU movies. No other movie franchise has more than one movie in the top 10. That’s because you’re looking at nominal dollars. You’re mostly measuring that they are _recent_ big movies. If you look at [inflation adjusted numbers](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/adjusted.htm), the first Avengers movie barely cracks the top 30. Star Wars, on the other hand, has 5 installments in the top 20. If we’re going by money as indicator of audience interest, this strongly supports either Phantom Menace or Force Awakens as the most anticipated. Both were the first installment of the most popular movie franchise in history after a long gap. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2019, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-movie-ever-been-as-anticipated-as-avengers-endgame/828919/75 "2019-02-06T03:37:26Z")
> [@XT](#): > > I’m sure that to many in this thread they haven’t been anticipating this, but saying no one ‘outside of some small group of fans’ (numbering millions if not more) is kind of silly. That’s out of context. Here’s the context: Assertion: People have been anticipating this movie for 10 years of Marvel movies. Refutation: Most people weren’t even aware of this particular storyline while watching the previous 10 years of Marvel movies. Only a small group of fans were anticipating this storyline / movie event while watching, say, Iron Man 2. In terms of anticipating this particular movie, there wasn’t really any anticipation at all until Infinity War was released a year ago. By contrast, the entire production of and run-up to the release of Phantom Menace was years of anticipation. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2019, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-movie-ever-been-as-anticipated-as-avengers-endgame/828919/76 "2019-02-06T13:40:48Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Is this a whoosh? Why would it be? My wife and I only heard about it when the commercial ran during the Super Bowl. I assumed there had to be another one - since they’re running trailers for other Marvel movies that suggest how the story plays out, there kinda had to be. But I had not actually heard it was made until Sunday. Marvel movies are very popular, but in fact, for any one Marvel movie you can name, most people have never seen it, and many people have seen few or none of them at all. Few things are so popular as to be well known to most people. ---
**Author:** ![Sparky812](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Sparky812](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sparky812)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2019, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-movie-ever-been-as-anticipated-as-avengers-endgame/828919/77 "2019-02-06T14:05:55Z")
> [@cmkeller](#): > > I was only 12 years old at the time, and in addition, there wasn’t the internet to gauge wide-scale anticipation, but perhaps Return of the Jedi was more highly anticipated than Phantom Menace? Exactly. The cliffhanger at the end of Empire and the anticipation for ROTJ were unbearable for fans at the time. The implications of Vader being Luke’s father, Han Solo being frozen in carbonite (possibly dead), Luke’s lost hand, the telepathic link between Leia and Luke, etc… I was about 11, it was all any of us talked about which included friends, teachers, parents, etc… There wasn’t many big movie franchises at the time and Star Wars was the biggest… ever! ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2019, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-movie-ever-been-as-anticipated-as-avengers-endgame/828919/78 "2019-02-06T14:24:30Z")
Again, I still think the grand champion in this case is GWTW. Another very-hyped film not mentioned is Taylor & Burton in _Cleopatra_, possibly the last of the great old school Hollywood Hype Machine films, where the adulterous romance between the two leads was used to promote the films production. In the end, the film cost $31 million to make, had $13 million in production costs, and is the only top-grossing movie of the year to actually _lose_ money, grossing just $58 million. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2019, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-movie-ever-been-as-anticipated-as-avengers-endgame/828919/79 "2019-02-06T16:12:57Z")
> [@iamthewalrus\_3](#): > > That’s because you’re looking at nominal dollars. You’re mostly measuring that they are _recent_ big movies. > > If you look at [inflation adjusted numbers](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/adjusted.htm), the first Avengers movie barely cracks the top 30. > > Star Wars, on the other hand, has 5 installments in the top 20. If we’re going by money as indicator of audience interest, this strongly supports either Phantom Menace or Force Awakens as the most anticipated. Both were the first installment of the most popular movie franchise in history after a long gap. Mmm. I’d throw a flag on this one. You’re looking at domestic in your link while XT was quoting worldwide so it’s really apple to oranges. It’s also been clear for some time that Star Wars is - for whatever reason - a specifically American fanbase. Most films these days derive ~65% of their income from overseas markets while - again for unknown reasons - Star Wars films see that number at about 50-55%. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2019, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-movie-ever-been-as-anticipated-as-avengers-endgame/828919/80 "2019-02-06T16:15:24Z")
By the way, my post above should have read “…$13 million in marketing costs”, not “production costs” as currently written. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-movie-ever-been-as-anticipated-as-avengers-endgame/828919.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-movie-ever-been-as-anticipated-as-avengers-endgame/828919.md?page=5)