‘Avengers: Endgame’ Encore Just Exploded Overseas, and a Record Reissue Opening Is Suddenly on the Table

Marvel / Disney

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Re-releases usually arrive with modest expectations. Audiences have already seen the movie, the buzz is mostly nostalgic, and the box office rarely produces surprises. ‘Avengers: Endgame‘ looks set to break that rule, and China is where the most striking numbers are coming from.

Disney announced that the film would return to Chinese theaters on September 25, the Mid-Autumn Festival, under the title ‘Avengers: Endgame Encore’. The rerelease includes never-before-seen footage giving fans an early look at ‘Avengers: Doomsday’, which arrives in December, and previews the reunion of original cast members such as Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans and Chris Hemsworth. The original film finished with 4.25 billion yuan in China and stayed at the top of the imported film chart for more than 6 years.

Now pre-sales for the reissue are climbing at a startling pace. According to box office analyst Luiz Fernando, the rerelease hit a $965,000 pre-sales cume on Saturday for the whole September 24-27 period, after only 2 days of nationwide pre-sales. That figure puts it ahead of a long list of recent blockbusters at the same stage, with 5 days still to go before release.

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The breakdown shows where the demand is concentrated. Previews on Thursday, September 24 account for $307,000, while the Friday, September 25 opening day contributes $573,000. Saturday adds $64,000 and Sunday $21,000, with the weekend numbers likely to grow as more screenings go on sale.

The comparisons are eye-catching. Fernando listed $133,000 for ‘Apes’, $183,000 for ‘Dune: Part Two’, $188,000 for ‘Aquaman 2’ and $313,000 for ‘The Batman’. Other titles trail it too, including ‘Deadpool and Wolverine’ at $435,000, ‘Jurassic World Dominion’ at $442,000, ‘Transformers: Rise of the Beasts’ at $450,000, ‘Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire’ at $470,000 and ‘Captain America: Brave New World’ at $521,000 across 2 days.

Fernando says ‘Endgame’ is performing almost like a brand-new release, with only a handful of titles posting better first 2 days of pre-sales since the pandemic. That short list includes ‘Zootopia 2’, ‘F9’, ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’, ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’, ‘Godzilla vs. Kong’, ‘Fast X’, ‘Meg 2: The Trench’, ‘The Odyssey’ and ‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’. It is a rare position for a reissue.

The rollout has also been unusually cautious. The film spent its first 2 weeks restricted to fewer than 100 screenings in China, then expanded to 11,000 screenings on September 18. It now sits at roughly 20,000 screenings, which Fernando notes is still an early allotment, so pacing should keep rising as more showtimes are added.

The bigger question is how high this can go. Fernando calls it too early to project, but he says that if sales are not front-loaded and the pacing holds, the film could genuinely dream of a $50 million-plus 3-day opening. That would be an all-time record for a reissue in any market, and a fitting result for one of the biggest franchise finales ever made.

Some caution is warranted. Fernando himself described front-loading as a big if for a comic book movie, and pre-sale enthusiasm does not always translate directly into final grosses. Third-party projections listed by one tracker put the opening at $20 million to $30 million, well below Fernando’s ceiling.

Even so, the trend is clear. Fans in China are treating the rerelease as an event, and the timing works in Marvel’s favor. The film opens the same day in other territories, and it serves as a bridge to ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ in December.

If the momentum continues, the rerelease could deliver a genuine box office headline before the weekend is over. For Marvel, it is also a reminder of how much goodwill the original film still commands. That kind of demand is a promising sign for what comes next.

Would you watch Avengers: Endgame Encore in theaters again?

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