Tickets for Avengers: Endgame are selling fast and thousands of screenings have already sold out ahead of the film’s highly anticipated official release. It’s been a while since Marvel Studios had to worry about one of their films performing at the box office, and the superhero franchise has gone from strength-to-strength with each critically acclaimed release. Even the lowest-grossing installments, the likes of Thor and Ant-Man, still manage to turn a healthy profit, while entries such as Captain Marvel and Black Panther have toppled records while dominating at theaters.

Last year’s Avengers: Infinity War was the culmination of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s first decade of existence, bringing together virtually every major character in the franchise for a high-stakes fight against Thanos. Unsurprisingly, the movie was a monster success, becoming only the fourth film in history to cross the $2 billion mark, the highest-grossing superhero movie of all time and the most lucrative film release of 2018. Avengers: Endgame picks up where Infinity War left off, as the team are left to deal with the consequences of Thanos’ devastating finger snap that wiped out half of the universe.

Endgame was never likely to be anything less than an overwhelming success but with the film’s release now upon the world, the scale of that potential success is now starting to become clear. According to Fandango (via Deadline), 4,000 screenings of Endgame have already sold out in North America, and the movie looks set to become the fastest pre-seller in the ticket company’s history. Interestingly, the report also claims that the impending arrival of Endgame has provided a boost to Captain Marvel, which is still in its theatrical run.

The early success Endgame is currently enjoying is hardly surprising; Marvel could release a 5-minute film about river weeds and it would probably gross strongly. However, these early indications suggest that Endgame could potentially outperform Infinity War and possibly even compete with the James Cameron duopoly of Avatar and Titanic as the highest-grossing film of all time.

Cameron himself has previously been critical of superhero movies and others have also suggested that the sub-genre has reached saturation point - with both Marvel, Fox and DC all releasing multiple films per year. The early reaction to Endgame strongly suggests otherwise, demonstrating a clear hunger from moviegoers for more comic book-inspired fare and it could arguably be said that the genre, and the MCU specifically, is actually still growing in popularity.

Endgame’s strong numbers are even more surprising considering that the film clocks in at slightly over 3 hours - proving that if a movie has enough hype around it, a hefty run time is no obstacle to box office success. Despite spending plenty of money on marketing, the Infinity War follow-up has also revealed very little about its story in order to avoid spoilers and trailers have given almost nothing away. Again, the fact that this tactic hasn’t hampered pre-release sales is testament to how eager fans are to see Avengers: Endgame.

More: Avengers: Endgame Early Reviews - A True Love Letter To MCU Fans

Source: Deadline

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