The Marvel/Disney juggernaut crossed the $500 million mark late in the afternoon in Beijing on Thursday after already racing past Universal's The Fate of the Furious ($392.8 million) to become the biggest imported film in China ever.
Three patriotic local blockbusters sit at the very top of China's all-time box office chart: Wolf Warrior 2 ($854 million), The Wandering Earth ($684 million) and Operation Red Sea ($576 million).
Prior to its release, few analysts believed Endgame had any chance of catching up to one of these titles. But the rave word of mouth that greeted Endgame on the ground in China has caused most observers to drastically revise their predictions.
Local ticketing service Maoyan now projects Endgame to earn as much as $625 million by the end of its China run — about $100 million more than originally predicted — which would knock Operation Red Sea down a notch and give Disney bragging rights for the third-biggest performance in local box office history.
Although Endgame will never catch Wolf Warrior 2 to become China's all-time box office champ, according to a report from the local state news service Xinhua, the Disney tentpole has already smashed 22 other local box office records. They include the highest-ever pre-sales ($92 million, or RMB620 million), the biggest midnight screening sales ($28 million; RMB189 million), the highest single-day ticket sales ($82 million; RMB550 million), the biggest single-week box office ($386 million; RMB2.6 billion), and the fastest film to cross the local significant RMB2 billion barrier ($297 million).
Endgame will be able to build on its many China box office records — free from major studio competition — until May 10, when Legendary's Detective Pikachu arrives.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter