Avengers: Endgame Ushers in New Era of Storytelling: Shared Viewing Experience and Global Box Office Records

Marvel Studios’ Avengers: Endgame raked in $1.2 Billion in its opening weekend, the biggest opening of any film ever.

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“Avengers: Endgame” brought in $1.2 billion its opening weekend at the worldwide box office, breaking prior Marvel Studio records set by “Avengers: Infinity War” at $640 million last year. “Avengers: Endgame” has become the only film in history to debut at the $1 billion mark, achieving this milestone in just five days as the film rolled out last week on Wednesday.

Domestically too, the film shattered records, besting the prior $258 million mark reached by “Avengers: Infinity War” with an estimated $350 million this past weekend, even surpassing analyst estimates. The film opened astronomically with $60 million on its first night domestically, besting “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” at $57 million in 2015.

Fans arrive for a costume contest before the first screening of ‘Avengers: Endgame’ at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. Photo by Frederic J. Brown, Agence France-Press/Getty Images

The film’s global earnings also exceeded by large measure, the prior record held by "The Fate of the Furious” in 2017. Of the $859 million earned globally, the last film in the Avengers series was very popular in China where the film made $330.5 million, becoming the most popular debut in China’s history.

A New Era in Storytelling: Worldwide Platform and Shared Viewing Experience

“Avengers: Endgame” has become a worldwide cinematic event where movie theaters are rushing to add showtimes to keep up with audience demand as seats quickly sell out, with some theaters showing the film round the clock 24 hours a day. With a run time of more than three hours, “Endgame,” is showing nationwide at all hours to meet demand. Moviegoers are eager for the full cinematic experience, which includes premium 3-D IMAX tickets and AMX food and beverage, leading to the highest sales in history. “Endgame,” is playing in more than 4,600 theaters in the U.S. and Canada, which is the widest release of any film, according to box-office data firm Comscore.

“We’re watching a monumental moment in the history of cinema unfold - one that the entire world is experiencing together.”

— Shawn Robbins, Chief analyst at Boxoffice.com

Today moviegoers worldwide can enjoy almost simultaneous film releases, creating a global storytelling phenomenon. “Avengers: Endgame” is the last film in a series of popular films that are intricately woven with individual films throughout the Marvel universe, amounting to a total of 22 interconnected films.

“The pent-up factor, off the ending of ‘Infinity War’ and on the heels of ‘Captain Marvel,’ drove people to show up.”

— Cathleen Taff, Disney’s head of distribution

Over the last 11 years, Marvel has reigned at the box office, beginning with “Iron Man” in 2008. With so many interconnected story lines and characters appearing across films, Marvel has become a household name, along with its line up of eclectic superheroes ranging from Thor to Doctor Strange and Captain Marvel. Marvel’s remarkable continued success has also triggered competing studios to look for their own franchise wonders. Marvel’s slew of comic book heroes has also revitalized the exhibition industry and made American comic books a worldwide global export.

Image via WSJ and data from Boxoffice Mojo

“Though ‘Endgame’ is far from an end for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, these first 22 films constitute a sprawling achievement, and this weekend’s monumental success is a testament to the world they’ve envisioned.”

— Alan Horn, Walt Disney Studios' chairman

Creating films based on its founder Stan Lee’s comics, Marvel Studios has made almost $20 billion at the worldwide box office over the last 10 years. Few movies are so popular with moviegoers and also with critics. “Endgame” has a 96% score on review site, Rotten Tomatoes and an A+ CinemaScore.

Marvel’s excellent marketing of the most recent Avengers movie builds upon its prior successes. The launch of Disney’s new online video streaming platform, Disney+ could not be more fortuitous or well planned. Moviegoers can enjoy watching blockbuster hits from Marvel, along with its other popular franchises such as Star Wars, Pixars and its own range of Disney popular favorites and classics on both the small screen now, as well as large IMAX screens.

“This will extend to the small screen as well with Disney + on the horizon. We will likely see a lot of synergy between the big and small screen.”

— Paul Dergarabedian, senior analyst at Comscore

Profile: Stan Lee, Marvel Legend, Comic Book Writer and Creator of Beloved Superheroes

Few storytellers have inspired the imaginations of adults and children alike across the globe so vividly with such a lasting impression as Stan Lee.

In many ways, Stan Lee was considered a real-life hero to fans of his comic books and the movies inspired by them. When he passed away on November 12 of this year at 95, he left behind a legacy of stories with far-reaching influence across the globe. He was known for iconic characters such as Spider Man, Iron Man, Thor, X-Men, Black Panther, Incredibe Hulk, Daredevil, Fantastic Four and more.

Create characters that people can relate to.

Comic book writer and storyteller Stan Lee brought to life superheroes with flaws - men and women who had imperfections and problems that differed greatly from the ideal archetypes that were written for preteens. Lee had started early in the business, like Walt Disney, following his heart, to work in the creative industry writing stories.

For example, Peter Parker was an anxious teenage science student when a radioactive spider bites him, transforming him into the agile, super strong Spider Man. Despite his heroic acts where he changed the world for the better, Spider Man still struggled with his teenage problems with girls, being bullied and his own angst. He was flawed, lovable and heroic all at once - a complex, compelling and relatable character. While Batman was a superhero of epic proportions, Spider Man was a kid with real problems who was making things up as he went along, who inspired us but also invoked our sympathies. Peter Parker was truly a friendly, neighborhood Spider Man!

“Stan Lee was as extraordinary as the characters he created. A superhero in his own right to Marvel fans around the world, Stan had the power to inspire, to entertain and to connect. The scale of his imagination was only exceeded by the size of his heart.”

— Bob Iger, Disney CEO

Through his own work and collaborating with Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and others, Lee took Marvel from being a small independent venture to the No. 1 publisher of comic books in the world, and then, a multimedia company. In 2009, the Walt Disney Co. purchased Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion. Some of the world’s biggest superhero films of all time, feature Marvel characters such as Avengers: Infinity War that raked in $2.05 billion worldwide and Black Panther that topped domestic superhero movies at $501 million in 2018, becoming the tenth highest grossing film in the United States.

“I used to think what I did was not very important. People are building bridges and engaging in medical research, and here I was doing stories about fictional people who do extraordinary, crazy things and wear costumes. But I suppose I have come to realize that entertainment is not easily dismissed.”

— Stan Lee in interview with the Chicago Tribune in April 2014

1941 Lee’s first writing for Captain America issue written by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby; Image via Marvel

1969 Peter Parker makes his Marvel debut! Lee’s inspiration for Spider-Man came of his desire to depict an adolescent hero who wasn’t relegated to sidekick. Finding spiders ‘spooky’, Stan and artist Steve Ditko created Marvel’s most globally recogni… — 1969 Peter Parker makes his Marvel debut! Lee’s inspiration for Spider-Man came of his desire to depict an adolescent hero who wasn’t relegated to sidekick. Finding spiders ‘spooky’, Stan and artist Steve Ditko created Marvel’s most globally recognized hero. Image via Marvel

2009 The Realm Eternal is brought to vivid new life in this remastered series featuring Lee and Kirby’s Thor! Collecting the "Tales of Asgard" backup stories from Journey into Mystery (1952) #97-104. Image via Marvel

Offer Life Lessons in Memorable, Unique Ways

While many readers young and old alike, may never read French author Voltaire, Stan Lee etched Voltaire’s famous words permanently in the minds of comic book readers and fans of the Spider Man movie franchise worldwide. The famous phrase “With great power comes great responsibility” was perfectly illustrated in the stories of Spider Man, teaching readers self-discovery and responsibility.

Provide Individual Empowerment and Representation

Few franchise writers and storytellers have pushed forward the concept of equality and empowerment as vigorously and consistently as Stan Lee did in his Marvel series. His characters also evolved over time and provided powerful examples of freedom and individual achievement and prowess, which in turn, inspired people worldwide. This is most noticeable in the Black Panther series, particularly after the release of the new movie based on Stan Lee’s comics in 2018, that was very popular among the African American community, providing long-desired theatrical representation in an empowering way.

Stories like Stan Lee’s inspire children and adults to break free of limitations and stereotypes, to see themselves achieving and growing. They help demonstrate virtues and character traits such as strength, honesty, empathy, bravery and intelligence along with a love of integrity, justice and honor. These stories can also address real life issues that communities face or provide metaphors and examples to confront and deal with these issues head on.

Give Credit Where Credit is Due

Lee wanted his character of Peter Parker to be imperfect, awkward at times and relatable. He chose to work with Steve Ditko to do this instead of Jack Kirby who was known for making perfect superheroes. Ditko had studied under Batman artist Jerry Robinson at the Cartoonist and Illustrators School in New York City. When Spider Man’s popularity catapulted Lee into the spotlight, he did not take all the credit for himself and shared it with his co-creator, Steve Ditko. He also publicly stated that he could not have truly envisioned the lovable, flawed, angst-filled teenage character of Peter Parker without the assistance of Ditko.

Stay Positive

Born on December 22, 1922 in Manhattan, New York, Stan Lee started working at a very young age, taking on odd jobs to help the family and meet the month’s rent. In later interviews after he had achieved success with his comics, Lee shared that his mother’s optimism and encouragement had a very positive influence on his life and perspective, enabling him to believe that he could do anything he wanted. This sunny perspective helped him throughout his career.

Lee would epitomize his optimistic attitude, positive energy and desire to constantly improve with the Latin word that he chose to describe his life and aspirations - Excelsior!

Excelsior would also become the title of his bestselling autobiography.

Don’t Take it All Too Seriously

Like the master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock, Stan Lee liked to poke a little fun at himself and the movies inspired by his stories by appearing in cameos. His cameos range from avoiding falling concrete to watering his lawn, delivering the mail, crashing a wedding and more.

Astutely enough, in Spider-Man 3 (2007), Lee chats with Tobey Maguire's character, Peter Parker, on a street by Times Square. They read the news that the web-slinger will soon receive the key to the city.

“You know, I guess one person can make a difference…’nuff said.”

— Stan Lee to Peter Parker

Stan Lee spent his entire life creating memorable, lovable characters with real flaws, fears, anxieties and problems to overcome, that audiences could relate to and be inspired by. His legacy will continue on for generations to come.

Disney Launches Its Own Streaming Service Rivaling Netflix Called Disney+

Long-awaited, Disney+ is Disney’s new streaming service that offers a range of blockbuster movies and TV shows

Benefiting from its acquisition of 21st Century Fox, Disney is now able to offer audiences a large range of original content, scheduled to launch by late 2019, as announced by Disney CEO Bob Iger. Disney+ will offer new Star Wars and Marvel series.

Based on the popularity of its box office hits such as Infinity War and The Last Jedi, Disney is expected to offer strong competition to Netflix through its new streaming service, Disney+, attracting existing fans of its popular franchises. Disney is also pulling all of its own content out of Netflix, to be available through its own service, as reported by CNBC. Disney+ catalog of movies, TV shows and other content now also includes Fox content, after Disney bought Fox for $71.3 billion in cash and stock in July of this past year. Disney beat Wall Street expectations for its fourth quarter with $2.3 billion in net income on revenue of $14.3 billion.

With the new service, Disney will experiment with offering straight to streaming original series, bypassing television and box office distribution. Disney has already launched the highly successful ESPN+, a sports-centric streaming service earlier this year in April. Disney+ is built on technology originally developed by BAMTech, an arm of Major League Baseball Advanced Media that develops and maintains direct-to-consumer streaming technology.

Upcoming shows include a second Star Wars spin-off set before Rogue One: A Star Wars Series and another Marvel show featuring Tom Hiddleston as Loki for a new “Loki” series. Additional shows announced previously include Jon Favreau’s The Mandalorian and shows based on Monsters Inc. and High School Musical. Disney will also host original animated content such a the next season of "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" and a new series set in Pixar's "Monsters Inc." universe.

The service is built on technology developed by BAMTech, an arm of Major League Baseball Advanced Media www.mlb.com that develops and maintains direct-to-consumer streaming technology.