Avengers: Endgame‘s opening box office record will never be surpassed according to the film’s directors. Joe and Anthony Russo spoke to Variety about their landmark achievement. In the months since theaters have opened back up, the lofty totals from 2019 seem very far away. “It will never happen again,” Joe claimed. “That was an apex of that era of theatrical filmmaking. When we started AGBO, we already felt the winds shifting.” It’s hard to argue with the logic on display there. The winds have indeed heralded a different era of theatrical releases. One that may not reach those lofty heights, but still could capture a lot of the luster. Avengers: Endgame famously grossed $1.2 billion during its first weekend out. Such numbers seem basically impossible in a landscape that has been forever altered by COVID-19. But, things could swing back around in a number of years with the right films and opportunities. For now, the world waits for something like Avengers: Secret Wars to bring everything together.
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How Does Marvel Move Forward After Phase 4?
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever presents the best bite at that billion dollar apple since Spider-Man: No Way Home last year. Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige also spoke about how this movie ties things up for Phase 4 I and interview on the purple carpet.
“The reason [Black Panther: Wakanda Forever] anchors Phase 4 — and the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special — is because the phases are all about introductions. And Phase 4, think about all the characters we’ve met,” the Marvel Studios executive explained at the world premiere. “And now, finally, in the finale of Phase 4, looking at it by phases, we meet an entire new kingdom and a character who is the very foundation of what we do at Marvel.”
In some similar comments during San Diego Comic-Con, the head man talked about what they had learned during Phase 4 and how they can carry those lessons forward. There have been a lot of new characters and that’s just the tip of the iceberg for the MCU going forward.
“I think we learn something on every project we do, but as we were laying out, even three years ago here laying out Phase Four, which we didn’t lay out all of, but most of, we realized that it’s very different than Phase One, Two and Three, that that there are more projects in less years, and therefore it didn’t seem right, you’re not going to culminate every 10 months in an Avengers movie,” Feige told Brandon Davis. “And each of the films themselves now have become quite big and are crossover events in many ways. And after, you know, the creative experience we had with Infinity War and Endgame, it felt like it was about capping a saga, saving back-to-back Avengers films for the completion of a saga and that’s really what we wanted to lay out today.
Do you think anything will ever claim that record? Let us know down in the comments!
