Avengers: Endgame: Much-hyped film expected to break box office records
Updated 13:20, 30-Apr-2019
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The biggest movie of the year is set to break records this weekend. In the US and Canada, "Avengers: Endgame" is expected to earn around 300 million dollars in its first four days alone. CGTN's Roee Ruttenberg has more.
They lined up for hours. But some have been waiting for years.
"It's like something I've grown up with my whole life. In-closet nerds, out-of-closet nerds, I'm glad it's something the whole worlds gets to be exposed to because it is an experience, and I believe everyone deserves all of this."
This, being: Marvel Avengers a superhero saga. And Endgame - which premiered this week - its final chapter.
If predictions are right, opening weekend globally could top a record-breaking one billion dollars in ticket sales.
In China, the world's second-biggest market, first day sales topped $100 million dollars. That's a record in the People's Republic.
In the U.S., online pre-sales crashed popular ticket sites.
"I woke up that morning, April 2, I logged in, I'm like 'I gotta go to work, gotta get my tickets' so I got them right away, day one."
OFF-CAM QUESTION "So how do you feel now that you aren't going in."
"I'm excited. I'm so stoked right now. Cuz we've been waiting for so long."
Across the country, theatres are struggling to add more and more screenings. One American cinema chain is showing the film around-the-clock for 72 hours trying to get eager fans in the door.
KAREN GILLAN ACTRESS "This is the culmination of 22 movies so far, and it's 10 years in the making. This is more than just a film, it's a cinematic event. That's what I'm calling it."
ROEE RUTTENBERG LOS ANGELES "For the most hardcore of fans, LA's landmark El Capitan just finished screening the first 21 films in a row, in order, start to finish. That's more than 50 straight hours of Avenger fever. And it sold out!"
"Now we came over here to watch the last one."
Studio executives were so worried early viewers might spoil the film for everyone else. The actors made this appeal on Twitter.
"Don't spoil the Endgame. Don't do it. Don't spoil the Endgame. I'm watching you."
The Avengers is based on the comic characters created by Stan Lee, a generational legend who died late last year.
For parents who grew up marveling at Lee's Marvel comics, and their children now growing up with the films, this was a special family moment.
"This is part of my childhood, it's now a part of their childhood. I'm just so thrilled that they get to see superheroes doing super things. But they're also very human. That's something Marvel has done a brilliant job at."
Roee Ruttenberg, CGTN, Los Angeles.