(China Daily) The latest installment of the Disney-owned superhero franchise is set to smash box-office records.
As the clock struck midnight on Tuesday, it signaled the start of a carnival for Marvel fans.
More than 2.1 million of them flooded to thousands of cinemas across China for the first batch of advance screenings of Avengers: Endgame, the epic conclusion of the current phase of the 11-year-long superhero franchise, which thus far has consisted of 22 films.
As of Wednesday, the three-hour epic had hauled in more than 1.07 billion yuan ($159 million), including those from advanced ticket sales for the next few days' screenings. More than 90 percent of the country's 60,000-plus screens are scheduled to play the film in the following week, according to box-office tracker Maoyan.
The film also set a new opening day record (including midnight shows) for IMAX China, raking in an estimated 93 million yuan - surpassing the previous record-holder Avengers: Infinity War by 82 percent.
IMAX attendance represented approximately 13 percent of the film's opening day gross in the country.
On the country's most popular review aggregator, Douban, the star-studded blockbuster has already racked up a score of 9.2 points out of 10, the highest of all the Avengers films so far.
Definitely no spoilers are allowed. A number of fans said on their social media platforms that they will stay offline before they watch the film.
Endgame may be the dramatic climax for several of Marvel's current crop of box-office heroes, but is it likely that, given the country's huge fan base, we will see a Chinese superhero stand shoulder-to-shoulder with a new crop of Avengers in Marvel cinematic universe anytime soon?
The answer from Kevin Feige, president of Marvel Studios, is affirmative.
"Yes. We're not talking about any things past Endgame, but it is in the plan very soon. The Chinese fans are so important to us and, it is important that they see themselves reflected on the screen," he said during an interview with China Daily.
Feige was joined by the film's directors, the brothers Joe and Anthony Russo, as well as a some of the movie's stars, Chris Evans, Paul Rudd, Chris Hemsworth and Jeremy Renner, at Endgame promotional events in Shanghai last week.
With his undying love for comic books, Feige is considered as a game changer who has turned a fledgling studio into the world's most successful superhero franchise producer.
"My favorite thing about the Avengers is that it's a story about lots of different types of characters - Tony Stark, Thor, Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanoff. They're all very different people, working together to achieve a common goal. And that's the message that I hope the world takes from the films," says Feige.
A Boston native born in 1973, Feige has focused on producing comic-adapted films for years, becoming the head honcho at Marvel Studios in 2007. The hits he has produced have a combined worldwide box-office gross earnings of over $22 billion.
Yet, the top decision-maker who can decide the fate of every superhero still clearly remembers his start as an associate producer on X-Men back in 2000.
"I remember very distinctly walking into the director's trailer and seeing all of the X-Men in costume for the first time. They were standing there. In real life. It was a really amazing moment," he recalls.
"Really, we love the characters and we love the emotional stories between the characters. Endgame is by far the most emotional, heartfelt movie that we've ever made," he says.
His words were echoed by the Russo brothers, who believe the key formula to lay the foundations of a Marvel blockbuster is to make every superhero relatable.
"We try to look at the characters behind the costumes. We try to think about them as very human people and we approach the storytelling in that way," says Anthony Russo.
"At the end of the day, what it's really about is very human, flawed people who are in difficult situations and trying to do their best. I think anybody can respond to a well-told narrative like that," adds Joe Russo.
While fans will be forced to bid farewell to some of their favorite superheroes on the silver screen (as Endgame trailers predict), some will find themselves rescuing the planet or restoring world order on smaller screens.
Disney is launching their new streaming service, Disney+, later this year. Five shows - an untitled Hawkeye series, WandaVision, Loki and Falcon and Winter Soldier - will be made exclusively available on the platform, with the respective actors reprising their formerly bigscreen roles. There will also be an animated series, titled Marvel's What If...?, which will feature the voice talents of some MCU stalwarts such as Hayley Atwell, who will reprise her role as agent Peggy Carter, according to reports by pop culture news sites Digital Spy and The Verge.
"That's just the beginning, but it's very exciting for us at Marvel Studios to be able to do a long-form series and really tell many more stories than we can with the movies. Also, these shows will tie into the movies in a way that has never been done before," explains Feige.
Endgame is the second film in history to be shot entirely with IMAX cameras, meaning that IMAX screenings can present the film with up to 26 percent more screen area than standard theaters, thus providing a more immersive experience.
However, the Russo brothers also believe the stories for theaters and those on the streaming service will not outshine each other. "The two of them will interweave in a way and feed each other, moving forward," says Joe Russo.
Feige, the tightly-scheduled studio boss who has a constant stream of meetings and works 11-hour days, has an ambitious blueprint.
"Now we can put anything on the screen thanks to technology, but that still is only a tool to tell a story," he says, concluding: "We have worked on the next five years. We know what movies we're going to make."
Source: By Xu Fan | China Daily