Infinity War to become highest grossing film of all time?
By Tyde Dermody
Following a baffling debut in North America, Avengers: Infinity War debuted in China this weekend to staggering results – so where will it end up on the all-time charts?
Marvel’s latest success Avengers: Infinity War has made so much money that I am starting to wonder if Disney possesses an Infinity Gauntlet of their own.
The culmination of 10 years and 19 films, Infinity War shattered all expectations when it opened to the tune of $630 million dollars. This was enough to break the all-time record for highest worldwide opening. That figure was especially impressive considering the film hadn’t even opened in China yet. In recent years, China has become a much-coveted market for Hollywood films and a quick look at the numbers illustrates why – last year alone China contributed $3.4 billion dollars to North American films.
When pondering just how much money Avengers: Infinity War would go on to make, many pointed to the China debut as a telltale sign of Marvel’s box office fortune. That debut finally took place this weekend and the numbers were absolutely extraordinary.
The film raked in a massive $200 million dollars for it’s opening bow in China. In North American currency, that makes the film the highest opener for a Hollywood film. When adjusted to local currency, Infinity War becomes the 2nd highest opening for a Hollywood film in China behind only last year’s The Fate of the Furious.
Will Avengers: Infinity War become the highest grossing film of all time?
So far, the film has earned $1.6 billion dollars worldwide. That total puts Avengers: Infinity War in the worldwide top 5 films of all time.
Let’s take a quick look at that chart as of this writing:
- Avatar – $2.78 billion
- Titanic – $2.18 billion
- Star Wars: The Force Awakens – $2.06 billion
- Jurassic World – $1.67 billion
- Avengers: Infinity War – $1.60 billion
Right off the bat you can safely assume that Avengers: Infinity War (which is only in it’s third week of release) has another $70 million in the tank, so it will easily hop over Jurassic World to take the number 4 all-time slot.
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It’s next hurdle is Star Wars: The Force Awakens at $2.06 billion. No matter how this battle shakes up, Disney is guaranteed to have the third and fourth highest grossing films of all time so I am going to guess that the Disney execs aren’t sweating it all that much.
For Infinity War to pass The Force Awakens it would have to make another $460 million before the end of it’s run in theaters – is that possible?
Well, the aforementioned The Fate of the Furious opened to $190 million in China and went on to gross about $383 million there when all was said and done. That means that the opening weekend for The Fate of the Furious represented roughly 49% of it’s overall China gross.
For the purposes of this article, I applied that same 51% increase to the opening for Avengers: Infinity War to form an estimate of how much more it will gross from China. With that increase applied I get another $202 million for Infinity War in China. If Infinity War can make that much in China the film only has to gross another $258 million around the globe in order to surpass The Force Awakens. It might be a tight race, but I believe Infinity War will pull ahead by the end of it’s theatrical run to become the third highest grossing film of all time.
As for cracking the top two, I don’t envision Infinity War pulling it off. I’m not saying it can’t happen (the movie has defied all expectations at every turn) I just don’t think it will. However, I would not be at all surprised to see Avengers 4 sneak it’s way into the top two when it is released next year.
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Where do you think Avengers: Infinity War will end up on the all-time worldwide chart? Make sure to let us know below, and if you have somehow gone this long without watching the film you can still catch it in theaters everywhere!