Marvel Studios Moviegoers Celebrate Second Anniversary of Avengers: Endgame

Marvel moviegoers commemorate the second anniversary of Marvel Studios blockbuster Avengers: Endgame, the record-shattering superhero epic released in theaters on April 26, 2019. The sequel to 2018's Avengers: Infinity War, which ends with Thanos (Josh Brolin) snapping away half of all life in the universe, Endgame reassembles Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner). Together, the original Avengers join forces with the last-surviving superheroes — including Captain Marvel (Brie Larson), War Machine (Don Cheadle), Rocket Raccoon (Bradley Cooper), Nebula (Karen Gillan), Okoye (Danai Gurira), and Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) — to do whatever it takes and restore order to the universe once and for all.

The Anthony and Joe Russo-directed Endgame entered the top ten highest-grossing films of all time just days into its original theatrical run, earning more than one billion at the worldwide box office before the end of April 2019. In July 2019, after the Disney-owned studio re-released the film with new footage and bonus features, Endgame surpassed James Cameron's Avatar to become the highest-grossing film of all time. (In March, an Avatar re-release reclaimed the number one spot.)

Endgame earned $2.798 billion globally and was followed by Marvel and Sony's Spider-Man: Far From Home, an epilogue and final chapter of the 23-movie Infinity Saga, set after Tony Stark sacrifices himself saving the universe in Endgame.

After Earth's mightiest heroes undo the effects of the Thanos snap, Endgame culminates with a legion of their allies — Spider-Man (Tom Holland), Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman), the Falcon (Anthony Mackie), Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), and the Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) among them — joining a Mjolnir-wielding Captain America in a crowd-pleasing moment Marvel chief creative officer Kevin Feige later called "the happiest and proudest moment of my career with Marvel Studios."

"I sat in the middle of a theater in Westwood opening night of Endgame which I had not done in years and watched the movie," Feige said during a panel at the New York Film Academy later in 2019. "It was maybe the most amazing experiences of my entire life mainly because they liked it and we worked hard on it! Being amongst that experience is something that only movies can do."