It was definitely National Superhero weekend with Marvel’s “Avengers: Infinity War” making a record-breaking Hulk smash of an opening with $250 million domestically. The film made another Hulk smash in breaking a worldwide record of $380 million dollars: assembling a total gross of $630 million dollars internationally.
“Avengers: Infinity War” celebrates 10 years of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), where Robert Downey, Jr. began that path of the Avengers Initiative as armored billionaire-playboy-genius-philanthropist Avenger Tony Stark/Iron Man. The film is the first of a two-part endgame: a day where all of “Earth’s Mightiest Heroes” are united, reunited, and reassembled to fight the battle of all battles in the form of the foe of all foes known as Thanos (Josh Brolin).
“Infinity War” is six years in the making since the battle of New York in 2012’s “The Avengers”, where Iron Man, Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), Captain America (Chris Evans), and the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) are called upon by S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) to become a team against Loki (Tom Hiddelston). The film made a Hulk smash with a then record-breaking $207 million domestic opening at the box office: assembling over $1.5 billion dollars worldwide, making RDJ the highest-paid Avenger with a $50 million payday.
“Avengers: Infinity War” helps “Black Panther” claw from eighth to fifth place with $4.3 million. The film stars Chadwick Boseman as the titular superhero T’Challa, the king of the fictional advanced Wakanda, whose nation is responsible for the vibranium metal that makes the shield of Captain America. Black Panther made a prowling big-screen debut in 2016’s “Captain America: Civil War” (Team Iron Man vs. Team Cap), but finally step out of the shadows as the first headlined black superhero since Wesley Snipes as “Blade” twenty years ago. With a record-breaking February debut of $202 million, “Black Panther” never froze out of the top spot for six straight weeks. With a worldwide total of over $1.3 billion dollars, “Black Panther” is both the #1 film and the #1 superhero of 2018.