AVENGER$: PAYDAY? ENCORE assembles $86m+ for MCU…

In my own personal opinion, Avengers: Endgame is one of the best pay-offs in modern mainstream cinema and a superb mix of both set-piece action and emotional drama. After over a decade, Marvel delivered and ending that felt satisfying in almost every way and stands up to repeat viewing.

But being that the film series is based on comics and comics frequently survive by having no firm ending, reinventing themselves time and time again, it was perhaps a given that such a cinematic ‘ending’ would not hold – sooner or later there would be pressure to continue things. Not so much a full-stop as a comma.

The Marvel films that followed Endgame, the solo-outings (sometimes featuring mini team-ups and cameos) were a mixed bunch which very much felt like starting all-over again. But when Marvel reassessed their plans after the firing of Jonathan Majors and decided to deviate from their planned Avengers movies featuring the immortal Kang, the connective tissue to that Endgame ending became tangible.

As we now know the Kang Dynasty film (for which there had been considerable groundwork laid out in releases like  Quantumania and the second season of LOKI) was largely abandoned and the decision was made that the next two Avengers films would deal with the threat of Doctor Doom and events linked to multiversal ‘incursions’ in which whole realities were being destroyed. Would Doom be the real villain or its desperate saviour?

But before Avengers: Doomsday arrives in December, there was a need not just for marketing but to more firmly connect it to the events of Avengers: Endgame. The decision was made to make some tweaks to the film and add some bonus footage. hence, Avengers: Endgame would be released into cinemas and multiplexes with a new moniker: Avengers: Endgame – Encore.

The truth is that the film remains mostly as you’ve seen it before. A couple of lines of dialogue are subtly changed, but there’s only four minutes of extra footage – mostly contained in the last scene of the film and in the middle/end of the film’s credits…. more akin to the teasers that Marvel regularly inserts into its films.

*spoilers*

The scene with Steve and Peggy dancing together at their home in the past is extended as we see Loki pay them a visit, saying he’s there to help them. Bruce Banner is ensconced in a bunker after the events of Spider-man: Brand New Day and is ‘collected’ by a heard (but directly unseen Doom),  at the Time Variance Authority we see the displays of the deadly incursions being mapped out and growing in number. Given that those additions immediately leaked to the internet, some obviously wondered if there’d really be any substantial reason to spend the money to see Endgame on the big screen again.

It would appear that, to some extent, there is… or, at least, that the marketing was persuasive and the leaks inconsequential to the bottom-line. Over its first weekend of re/release, the ‘Encore’ – being screened at over 3000 cinemas managed over $26 million in North American box-office receipts alone. That was around three times more than most rereleases and meant that it convincingly beat some new films being released for the first time. Over the same time-frame, the film won the equivalent of over $12.5 million at the Chinese box-office. It took in the equivalent of over $5m in UK cinemas. Current estimates suggest the film has reached $86M worldwide.

Advance ticket-sales for Avengers: Doomsday itself have so-far reached over $50 million.

Avengers: Doomsday will open in December. Avengers: Secret Wars is scheduled to open at the end of 2027.