Avengers: Endgame falls off the top 10 highest box office earners for the first time since it debuted in late April. Directed by Joe and Anthony Russo with the story written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, the film is the culmination of everything that has transpired in the Marvel Cinematic Universe's The Infinity Saga. It also served as the swan song for several principal cast members of the franchise making the movie much more memorable.
Picking up after the tragic events of Avengers: Infinity War, Endgame saw the re-assembly of the original six Earth's Mightiest Heroes for one final mission - bring back all those who were snuffed out of existence by Thanos' deadly snap and defeat that the Mad Titan for good. The team was successful with their endeavors, albeit not without their own losses like the deaths of Tony Stark /Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) and Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson). Avengers 4 was chock-full of memorable moments and Easter eggs referencing the last 10 years of the MCU resulting into a satisfying end of an era for the franchise. Between the hype it already had and good word of mouth, it broke several box office records and has consistently been in the 10 highest grossing films since it arrived - until this week.
In Deadline's box office break down for the week, Endgame failed to crack the top 10 list with a $3.7 million earning against the psychological thriller Ma's $3.8 million. Sony's Men in Black: International topped the list, although in disappointing fashion, only pocketing $28 million. Universal's The Secret Life of Pets came in second place with $23.7 million, followed by Dinsey's Aladdin ($17.1 million), Fox/Disney's Dark Phoenix ($8.3 million) and Paramount's Rocketman ($8.3 million). Meanwhile, Godzilla: King of the Monsters ($8.1 million), John Wick 3 ($6.1 million), and Late Night ($5.1 million) rounded up the 6-9 spots.
After a lukewarm start for this year's summer blockbuster season, things are looking up with a string of high-profile blockbusters in the horizon. Disney has three films rolling out in the next few weeks including Toy Story 4, Spider-Man: Far From Home (Marvel's collaboration with Sony) and The Lion King - all of which are riding good PR so far, not to mention Universal's Fast & Furious: Hobbs & Shaw. These movies further diminish Endgame's chances of making enough to claim the highest-grossing movie accolade from James Cameron's Avatar. Unless Far From Home, which has a story intrinsically tied to Avengers 4, reinvigorates people's interest in seeing the ensemble flick one last time - if it's still playing in theaters by then.
This is the first time in 7 weeks that Endgame fell off of the top 10 list. This doesn't mean much when looking at the film's total box office haul since it's already earned $830 million domestic and $1.9 million internationally for a total of $2.74 billion. In the bigger picture, however, this means that the culminating film has a slimmer chance of pushing past Avatar which earned $2.78 billion. That's a safe buffer for the 2009 sci-fi flick to remain at the top spot unless Marvel Studios does a re-release which means that could still take a while before Avengers: Endgame catches up.
Source: Deadline
