LOS ANGELES
The biggest movie in the world this weekend came out in 2019. Avengers: Endgame Encore, a re-release of the Marvel blockbuster with four minutes of new footage, opened at No. 1 globally with an estimated $86 million: $26 million in North America and $60 million overseas, according to Disney.
That is the second-highest global debut ever for a re-release, and it did more than pad an old film's total. It pushed Marvel Studios to $35.075 billion across 38 films, extending its lead as the most successful franchise in film history, and it moved Endgame to $2.885 billion worldwide, just $39 million behind Avatar for the all-time record.
Most importantly for Disney, it gave millions of fans their first look at where the Marvel Cinematic Universe goes next.
Four Scenes, One Big Setup
The Encore leaves the 2019 film intact. "We weren't going to mess with what that movie is," co-director Anthony Russo told Marvel.com. Instead, the new material is layered around the edges, and some of it played only on premium large-format screens.
The first scene arrives before the credits. Just as Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) settles into his long-delayed dance with Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell), there is a knock at the door. It is Loki (Tom Hiddleston). Asked whether he needs help, he replies that he is there to help them. Russo has said this moment is where Doomsday "is born."
The second scene finds Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) in isolation, experimenting with gamma radiation after the events of Spider-Man: Brand New Day, until Robert Downey Jr.'s Doctor Doom appears and says he has come to collect him. The third returns to the Time Variance Authority, where Mobius (Owen Wilson), Ouroboros (Ke Huy Quan) and Casey (Eugene Cordero) watch universes collide and die by the thousands before Ouroboros declares that the multiverse is collapsing. The last is a short post-credits sting: the clang of Tony Stark hammering out his first Iron Man mask in a cave, cut against images that end on Doom's mask.
For comic readers, the collisions point straight at writer Jonathan Hickman's "incursions" storyline, in which two Earths meet and one must be destroyed for either to survive. That story leads into Secret Wars, the planned follow-up to Doomsday.
Why Re-Releases Suddenly Matter
Re-releases used to be anniversary filler. The Encore suggests they can now be tentpoles in their own right, and the reason is as much about screens as stories. The film played in more than 3,000 theaters, including more than 1,300 certified for Infinity Vision, Disney's new premium large-format standard built around the biggest screens, laser projection and top-tier sound. Those auditoriums generated roughly 52 percent of the opening, according to Disney.
Audience response was strong: a 96 percent Verified Audience score on Rotten Tomatoes from more than 1,000 ratings and a perfect five-star PostTrak score from general and family audiences. When the original opened in April 2019, it made $1.2 billion worldwide in a single weekend, still the only film to pass $1 billion globally in its debut.
A Crowded, Healthy Box Office
The Encore topped a lively chart. Zach Cregger's Resident Evil took second with $23.3 million in its second weekend, crossing $100 million domestically to reach $103.4 million. Paramount's survival thriller Heart of the Beast opened in third. Sony's Spider-Man: Brand New Day added $10.3 million as it closes in on $2.5 billion worldwide, and Practical Magic 2 reached $92.4 million globally.
That mix, with an old superhero film, a new horror reboot, an original thriller and a legacy sequel all drawing crowds, is the kind of depth the theatrical business has been chasing since the pandemic. Late September is usually a quiet stretch between summer tentpoles and awards season. This year it was not.
Expert Perspective
The strategy is plain: turn anticipation for a December event into ticket sales in September, and use fan affection for a finished story to promote an unfinished one. It also tests audience appetite for premium formats at a moment when studios and exhibitors are betting that a bigger, louder, more expensive seat is what gets people off the couch.
The risk is fatigue. Marvel's post-Endgame run has been uneven, and Doomsday carries enormous expectations, from Downey's return in a new role to the Russo brothers directing again. A weekend like this suggests goodwill toward the franchise is still deep. Whether that goodwill carries over to new characters and a more tangled multiverse is the $35 billion question.
What This Means for You
If you are planning to see Doomsday on December 18, the Encore now works as required homework, especially the Loki and Hulk scenes, which appear to set up its central conflicts. Some footage was exclusive to premium screens, so check your theater's format if you want all four scenes. Spoilers are circulating widely online; if you care, see it soon.
More broadly, expect more of this. When a re-release with four minutes of new material can win a weekend worldwide, other studios will take note, and more films you already love may come back to theaters with extra scenes attached.
The Final Word
Seven years ago, Endgame was sold as the end of a saga. This weekend it became the start of the next one. Audiences were happy to relive the snap, the portals and Steve's last dance, then stay through the credits to find out what comes next.
