Seven years after it first hit theaters, “Avengers: Endgame” is once again the highest-grossing movie of all time.
Disney and Marvel Studios brought the 2019 blockbuster back to theaters on Sept. 25 as “Avengers: Endgame Encore.” The new version adds a few minutes of footage teasing December’s “Avengers: Doomsday,” plus an introduction from Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans. It topped the box office right away, grossing $26 million domestically and $86 million worldwide in its opening weekend. That’s the third-best domestic debut ever for a rerelease, behind only the 1997 special edition of “Star Wars” and the 2011 3D release of “The Lion King.” The Encore beat “Resident Evil” in its second weekend and outgrossed three new non-franchise releases: “Heart of the Beast,” “Primetime,” and “Forgotten Island.”
The run cooled quickly. Domestic ticket sales fell more than 80% in the second weekend. But by then the Encore had already done what it needed to do. It added another $18.8 million worldwide this weekend, bringing the rerelease to roughly $126 million globally. That lifts “Endgame’s” lifetime total to $2.9255 billion, just ahead of James Cameron’s “Avatar” at $2.9237 billion. “Endgame” first took the title from “Avatar” in 2019, then lost it in 2021 when “Avatar” was rereleased in China.
Rereleases rarely earn more than $10 million, according to box office analyst David A. Gross. “Endgame” has been available to stream for years, and it still outdrew a slate of new movies. That suggests Hollywood’s intellectual property machine is far from slowing down. It also suggests the future of moviegoing may look more familiar than it seemed at the start of the summer.
In 2019, when “Endgame” first dominated the box office, nine films grossed more than $1 billion worldwide. Every one of them was a sequel, remake, or spinoff of existing IP. Hollywood has spent the years since trying to recapture that success. The pandemic and the streaming wars upended moviegoing habits. Big swings from once-reliable franchises like Marvel, DC, and, most recently, Star Wars failed to match the critical or commercial success they enjoyed in the previous decade.
Marvel, the biggest franchise of the 2010s, saw a steep decline after “Endgame.” Before the pandemic, the studio’s biggest releases routinely approached or cleared $1 billion. Between 2020 and this summer, only two Marvel movies crossed that mark: “Spider-Man: No Way Home” and “Deadpool & Wolverine.” Last year, “Captain America: Brave New World,” “Thunderbolts*,” and “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” grossed roughly $1.3 billion combined. That’s less than half of what “Endgame” made on its own.
For audiences who want Hollywood to invest in new ideas, this summer first looked like a turning point. Two YouTube creators-turned-directors broke out in a big way. Curry Barker’s “Obsession” was made for under $1 million and has grossed more than $500 million worldwide. Kane Parsons’ “Backrooms,” which the 20-year-old adapted from his own web series, became A24’s biggest hit ever. Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” became a cultural phenomenon, showing that audiences would turn out in droves for something ambitious and unique.
Meanwhile, movies based on legacy IP floundered. “Masters of the Universe,” “Supergirl,” and “Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu” all underperformed. Even newer franchises lagged: “Minions & Monsters” and “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” both trailed their predecessors. Disney’s “The Devil Wears Prada 2” was the outlier, riding nostalgia to nearly $700 million worldwide.
Consequently, originality briefly had Hollywood’s ear.
Tide turns back to franchises
Then the tide started turning back toward familiar waters. “Toy Story 5” opened to $312 million globally, a franchise record. Its domestic debut was the second-biggest ever for an animated film, behind only “Incredibles 2.” It went on to gross more than $1.14 billion worldwide, passing “Toy Story 4.” The 31-year-old franchise clearly wasn’t out of gas.
“Spider-Man: Brand New Day” arrived on July 31 and eased fears of superhero fatigue. It set a record with a $168 million opening day and held the No. 1 spot for six straight weekends. That’s the longest streak since “Avatar: The Way of Water.” The film has now grossed about $2.5 billion worldwide. That makes it the highest-grossing domestic release ever and the third-biggest movie of all time globally. Sony distributes the Spider-Man films, but Marvel Studios co-produces them and they’re part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. That bodes well for “Avengers: Doomsday.”
All of this leads to the current moment, in which a seven-year-old movie returned to theaters and beat new releases. It caps a summer of box office whiplash, and the back-and-forth isn’t over. This weekend, Tom Cruise and Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s big-budget original comedy “Digger” bombed with an $8 million domestic opening. The weekend’s winner was “Verity,” an adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s bestselling novel. On Oct. 23, Laika’s “Wildwood” and DC Studios’ “Clayface” open on the same day. “The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping” follows on Nov. 20. Then “Doomsday” and “Dune: Part Three” go head-to-head on Dec. 18.
The 2026 summer box office brought in a record $4.76 billion domestically. That’s the biggest summer ever before adjusting for inflation, and nearly 10% ahead of 2019. IP like “Spider-Man” and “Toy Story” played an undeniable role. But non-franchise titles “The Odyssey,” “Michael,” “Project Hail Mary,” and “Obsession” all rank among the year’s 10 highest-grossing releases worldwide. “Backrooms” and Pixar’s original “Hoppers” sit at Nos. 11 and 12, both ahead of “The Mandalorian and Grogu” at No. 13.
Screenwriter William Goldman famously summed up Hollywood in three words: “Nobody knows anything.” Coming out of this summer, it certainly rings true.
