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‘Avengers’ Pre-Sales Bigger Than Previous Marvel Films Combined
BREAKING… MONDAY 7TH UPDATE: Still more countries 
are reporting grosses, and the superhero super-blockbuster opened #1 in every foreign market. It doesn’t come out in the U.S. until May 4th but already it’s scooping up 60+% of all pre-sold movie tickets online and more than all the previous Marvel films combined. Overseas, Disney is reporting $185.1M box office in the film’s first 5 days of release in 39 territories. Marvel‘s The Avengers from Disney now is playing in approximately 70% of its foreign run. Latin and South America dominated with the highest opening weekend of all time in major markets like Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Central America, Peru, and Boliva. As well as the Asian makets which had the highest opening weekends in Hong King, Taiwan, Malaysia, Philippines. Big ticket nations like Russia, China and Japan are still to open, and upcoming May Day is a huge holiday. The pic is already grossing ahead of Alice In Wonderland, Pirates Of the Caribbean 4, Iron Man 2, and The Dark Knight. The Avengers scoored the biggest opening days in New Zealand, Taiwan, Iceland and Malaysia. Cumes for key territories include: UK $25.5M, Australia $19.8M, Mexico $16.9M, France $13.9M, Korea $13.0M, Brazil $11.3M, Italy $11.0M, Germany $8.1M, Taiwan $7.5M, Spain $6.9M, Philippines $6.6M, and Hong Kong $4.7M.
SATURDAY: Performance to date in key territories include: Australia $11.1M, UK $9.4M, France $6.8M, Italy $5.8M, Mexico $4.7M, Korea $4.5M, Taiwan $3.6M, Germany $3.4M, Philippines $3.4M, Brazil $2.8M, Hong Kong $1.8M, and Spain $1.7M. Throughout the smaller Latin American territories opening Thursday, the Friday opening was the best ever Disney and Marvel opening day. Mexico represented the second highest opening day of all time. Brazil was the third highest opening day of all time. In the UK, the 2 days to date have exceeded the opening weekends of previous Marvel films Thor, Iron Man, and Captain America. Taiwan was the second highest Friday of all time. Hong Kong was the highest non-holiday Friday result of all time. India opened on Friday to the third biggest opening day for all Hollywood titles ever and highest ever for a Disney and Marvel opening day. Malaysia opened Friday to the #1 biggest opening day of all-time. Vietnam opened Friday to the 2nd biggest opening day of all time. And Iceland opened Friday to the #1 biggest opening day of all-time.
FRIDAY AM, 4TH UPDATE: My sources say Marvel’s The Avengers posted an estimated $36.0M in its first two days of overseas release from 25 territories. This represents approximately 45% of its international run. Performance to date in key territories: Australia $8.2M, France $4.9M, Italy $4.6M, UK $4.1M, Taiwan $2.4M, Philippines $2.4M, Korea $2.3M, Germany $1.4M, New Zealand $1.1M. The UK opening was the third biggest Thursday opening ever. In Germany it opened #1 in the market and is the biggest opening day of 2012. Korea’s opening represents the 3rd biggest non-local title opening of all time. Hong Kong’s opening is the 4th biggest debut day of all time and the biggest non-holiday opening of all time. Argentina was the third highest opening day of all time. Denmark opened Thursday to the 2nd highest Marvel opening day ever and biggest opening day of 2012. South Africa opened Thursday to the 2nd biggest Thursday opening day of all-time (only behind Twilight 3). Austria opened Thursday to the biggest opening day of 2012. Hungary opened Thursday to the biggest Marvel opening day ever. Chile opened Thursday to the 5th highest opening day of all-time and the biggest Disney and Marvel day ever. Peru opened Thursday to the 3rd highest opening day of all-time and the biggest Disney and Marvel day ever.
THURSDAY AM, 3RD UPDATE: My sources say Marvel’s The Avengers has made a total $17.1M overseas already. And the hotly anticipated actioner is already shattering box office records overseas. It earned in U.S. dollar estimates $17.1M from 10 countries: including $6.2M in Australia, $2.7M in Italy, $2.9 in France, $1.3M in the Philippines, $1.3M in Taiwan, $800K in New Zealand, and $900K others. MovieTickets.com reports the superhero actioner in the United States ”is pre-selling more tickets for the upcoming release than the online ticketing company sold for Captain America, Thor, Iron Man 2, and Iron Man combined at the same point in the sales cycle for each film. In fact, pre-sales are over 1 1/2-times that of these past Marvel films combined sales at the same point in the sales cycle”. MovieTickets.com reports that 56% of Avengers pre-sales are from fans wanting to see the film in 3D. And nearly 37% are from moviegoers buying tickets to see the film in IMAX 3D.
Internationally, two nations, Australia and New Zealand, having were holidays: ANZAC Day, so that helped boost box office. Australia’s opening day is the second-highest opening of all time there behind only the final Harry Potter (A$7M). It is also the highest Marvel opening day ever, 214% ahead of Iron Man 2 (A$1.8M Thursday opening) and 136% ahead of The Dark Knight (A$2.5M Thursday opening), and the highest Disney opening day ever for a Disney film. The pic playing in Taiwan is the biggest industry Wednesday opening ever, the biggest opening day of 2012 (173% above Battleship) and the second-biggest opening day for any Marvel film (after only Spider-Man 3). In New Zealand, pic scored highest grossing opening day ever, beating Harrry Potter finale (NZ$975L). The pic isnt even pen yet in China, Russia, or japan. The Avengers is the first Marvel film to be marketed and distributed by Disney, so this is great news for the studio.
Related: ‘Avengers’ Tracking Like Superhero: $125+M Opening Weekend With 4-Quadrant Appeal
The pic has been tracking incredibly high because so many well-known characters are coming together for the first time in this PG-13 film directed by Joss Whedon in Digital 3D, RealD & IMAX 3D. So the movie’s North American opening on May 4th timed to the official summer season start will be an event. As a result, not only will this type of action film normally skew young and older male, but the tracking is looking strong as a three- and possibly four-quadrant movie, too. Right now Disney and theatre owners are adding screens every day for the U.S./Canada release whose online pre-sales of tickets were selling out weeks in advance. Midnight show business is expected to be phenomenal. Exactly how much the studio can gross for the first weekend depends on how many screenings each theater can pack into 72 hours by finding enough staff willing to work the extra hours and keep the pic running continuously.
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Just watched it tonight and enjoyed it a lot. Happy to see it’s getting good box office numbers.
that should help to pay off john carter…so we can get a sequel….come on disney
So, have a movie that is doing well pay off the bomb that is John Carter so they can make a sequel that will also bomb?
John Carter wouldn’t have bombed if it had been marketed. Ross hated the movie and did no merchandising, etc. MT Carney was new to the movie business. Great movie trashed by brain dead idiots and sabotaged by Ross and Co. Pixar should’ve raised hell earlier like Marvel did to crank up promotion for Avengers.
FYI, it wasn’t marketing’s fault. It just wasn’t that “great” a movie.
It was a lot better than far bigger hits. People just didn’t even show up to find out. And that comes down to marketing.
Oh I think the Thanos teaser at the end of the movie might be an indication of better things to come
Spoiler alert much? Geez.
Why would you need to post that? You just ruined it for everyone else. Use common sense next time.
Who the hell is Thanos? I saw the movie yesterday and caught no tease whatsoever.
Thanos? If that is the case then the time has come for Captain Marvel!
I saw the movie last night and I want to say FUCK YOU VERY MUCH to Guru Chef for ruining the ending teaser. You are truly, truly an asshole.
But I thought it was the genius of Paramount marketing that made Marvel movies work, not the cultural value of the Marvel Universe? How could this happen?
Doesn’t everyone love how high-profile, highly anticipated, blockbuster AMERICAN films are released overseas before they are released here?
And studios wonder why pirating is so rampant.
Relaaaax. The only reason why Avengers was released this early in Australia was to capitalise on the public holiday (Anzac Day – despite what the above article describes as a non-holiday). I’d say that move paid off in droves.
Excellent movie – hoping to see it again over the weekend. Kudos to Joss for pulling this off.
Yay for the Joss god for pulling it off
The USA is a second-run movie house now.
Get over it!
You are a moron.
If you really think that someone who’s been waiting for this movie for weeks is going to download a disgusting looking bootleg version instead of waiting ten more days then you are a moron.
As for releasing movies before North America, I also think it is a great move. It is much easier to release a good movie in other countries, if the trailer and reviews are good, people will go and see it and that’s it. If the movie is good then there will be good word of mouth. Unlike here where people take pride into trolling and trashing everything just for the f of it before they’ve ever seen it.
Excuse me, but YOU are the moron.
Why do you think people pirate movies? Why do you think studios have been spending so much money lobbying the government for laws conerning piracy?
Are you really such an idiot?
The North American box office may be the single largest, but last year 69% of studio grosses came from overseas. That’s right–not just a majority but a super-majority of their grosses. Almost every event film has more, and sometimes much more, from foreign markets.
The reason for Avengers’ earlier release overseas is that Ice Age 4 drops May 11th. Ice Age 3 made about $700m foreign–it’s the biggest animated movie ever overseas, plays as almost a four quadrant film there. $700m is well above the foreign hauls of Spider-Man 3, Iron Man 2, and The Dark Knight. Ice Age 4 is likely to make at least $750m overseas. Avengers will take a huge hit from it, and will lose 3-D screens too. This way, it gets fully two weeks of foreign grosses instead of just one.
Ice Age isn’t out until June. But thee are several reasons for the “early” release. It actually follows the Marvel Studios pattern for Iron Man 2 and Thor, both of which opened 1 – 2 weeks ahead of North America. Everything form International football, May Day and other holidays as well as the opening of other films (like Dark Shadows) means that opening now and getting a 2 week head start should prove invaluable.
The movie is out there in the wild if you know where to look for it. It should have been released simultaneously in the states. That would cut down on pirating. Of course people will watch a less than stellar copy of the movie streaming or downloading just to be able to see it. Will they still see it on the big screen? Most will some won’t. Pretending that people won’t stream/download is naively sticking your head in the sand.
Cynical – I completely agree with you. Was out with friends on Monday when this same discussion came up. Most said they are going to try and download it.
So it gets released in a market where a holiday weekend nets $6.2 million in one day. The North American market will probably do that in an hour, so why is it that we are getting shafted on most of the new blockbusters? Battleship will have been out (an bootlegged) for a month before it premieres here.
Would be nice if US movie goers realized the power they have and just boycotted one movie for one day. While as a whole the market may be global, the North American segment still is the largest single market… So speak up with your dollars people!
so much stupidity in that comment, it is hard to believe.
If your friends would rather download and watch a movie in a terrible quality than wait ten days, well, I’m sorry, but they are complete morons and are completely missing the point of cinema.
Also, I know that might be hard to understand for an american but there is actually a lot more people outisde of the US than in the US. A lot of movies now make more money outside of your country than in your country.
And finally, Australia has 15 times less people than the US. (for the movie to be as big in the us as in australia, it would have to make 100M+ in a day which isn’t going to happen).
Yes, you are an imbecile. And no, the North American segment is really not the largest single market.
So much anger Charlie. Yes, my friends would rather download… Stupid, not really since most are BROKE students. And yes, North America right now IS the largest single market. Europe is fragmented and China is still emerging. Even if North America pulls in 20% of gross sales of a movie, not one other single territory comes close.
Totally agree with your reply, Charlie. I cant help but laugh when i read how important americans think they are compared to the rest of the world. Put together the international grosses, and it will make a bigger difference than the american box office numbers alone, period. A movie with a solid international box office = full of win.
Spot-on Charlie.
Thank you, Dee Lyter! With the recent strategy of opening “blockbusters” overseas before playing them in the U.S., the Hollywood hustlers are treating American moviegoers like second-class citizens. I strongly believe we should react accordingly and boycott the studios (and ALL of their product, not just the biggies) engaged in this practice. If this trend continues (and there’s no reason to think it won’t), the mainstream studio morons will be making movies solely for overseas audiences (who continue to lap up the 3-D crap U.S. moviegoers have tired of–”Wrath of the Titans” anybody?), and the rare quality film will be left to the independents (not a bad idea, actually). Please, all of you panting for next Friday’s unleashing of “The Avengers”. Spend your 15 bucks elsewhere, and let the Disney dorks know about it!!!
I agree. If we take a second and think about it objectively — and stop trying to defend production companies or distributors, or try to crunch the numbers…but just think about it — it’s sad that America is now at the bottom of the distribution list.
Who cares where a movie is released first? If it’s a good movie I’ll go see it and if not I won’t. At least American Film companies are getting some of our money back from these &*^(%$#@ foreigners. I’m not going to not watch a movie because some dork hates corporate america. I invested in Marvel back in 2001 when they were coming out of bankruptcy when most of you anti-corporation people could care less if it went under, and now you want to boycott a company that is actually returning jobs and capital back to America. Marvel, now Disney is going to put my Grandson through 4 years at Notre Dame in a few years thanks to Spider-man, Hulk, Thor, and Iron Man. Thanks Stan!!!
Worked out well for Thor. Made $450 million worldwide and that’s a pretty unknown character.
Oh, and Charlie, since you seem to need help understanding percentage of revenue per market segment. Let me help you once again… With the exception of Iron Man 2 and maybe one or two others… The North American market shows a higher percentage of global revenue (high 40s to low 50s) for movies that open on or close to the same date globally. Those that open well in advance of the US are mostly in the lower 40s, so there’s an impact. No matter if it is low 40s or more, there is still no single market that even comes close to matching that number.
And you made my point when you said that there are 15 times less people in Australia. As a market, it is insignificant to the US.
@Charlie vs. Everybody Else: The truth is somewhere between your points.
Piracy seems to inflict the most damage against stoner fare like American Reunion. The people who watch that crap are too jaded to venture into daylight to spend money on amusement, so they’ll stay home and smoke dope while watching it on streaming.
The Avengers is different because there’s still a form of brand loyality behind it. It’s very visceral, made for the big screen, etc. As long as the movie’s good*, piracy won’t really encumber it ala Wolverine. Besides, if it’s got $70m overseas this weekend, shouldn’t we be expecting at least a $140m domestic debut, piracy notwithstanding?
*I have no idea what “good” means in the context of middle-aged men in spandex fighting robot dragons, but I guess it’s not as bad as Spider-Man 3. Cool!
it’s more than $70m o’seas for the weekend – that number is for first three days from opening wednesday.
EXACTLY.
Personally, I don’t really get the whole release date controversy. If it released first at oversea, I’ll get a true review of the film. If the review is bad, then I’ll skip out. If the review is good, I’ll go see it after about three or four weeks.
Perhaps Disney first opened the film overseas because online word of mouth and foreign sales would set the tone for US sales instead of the catty sniping of sites like this one. I think Disney will treat John Carter as a lesson learned for a long time. A decent scifi film with a 100 year old classic character, killed by the H’wood press.
Um you do realize that the international market usually gets the short end of the stick, right? Sometimes we have to wait a month or more to watch a movie. The USA isnt the center of the world (there’s more people living outside the USA than in the USA, just in case you didnt know that), so i say worldwide piracy is a lot more significant. If the rest of the world goes pirate, no matter how much it makes in the USA, the movie will feel it.
I thought this was a brilliant move to cut down piracy. So i guess it all depends where you’re coming from.
Personally, i think all movies should have a worldwide release every single time (especially blockbusters). I bet you piracy would take a big cut that way.
Maybe the studios are starting to realize that pirating is not cutting into box office. People who are going to watch films, don’t want some crappy hand job, with crappy audio, and silhouettes of people in the front. They want to go see the movie at a cinema.
You have a it a bit backwards. Pirating is far more rampant overseas than in the US – this is a movie to get ahead of that.
Wish I lived in Australia right now. I haven’t been this excited to see a film since…I’ve actually never been this excited.
Watched it yesterday and going back again. It’s freaken awesome.
I’d say that bootleg copies are going to be all over the web by…Sunday?
Sunday? It’ll be on Usenet tomorrow and then the torrent sites by Saturday…
Try “right now.” A quick look on google shows no less than three different versions already leaked onto the scene.
Good job, studios. Hope that early foreign release plan works out like gangbusters for ya.
If you had read the article above it said 57% and 37% of the tickets sold were for 3D and IMAX 3D, which tells you most want to see it on the big screen, not a crappy bootleg copy.
Some movies meant to see on the big screen, this is one of them, I’m sure Disney is shaking in their boots over the bootleg copies.
Sunday? You are way too slow. It’s out there as of Saturday morning. People are quick. @Charlie. Many people are willing to forfeit the “cinema experience” in exchange for having something right now. “Good enough” has been winning in the digital space for a decade now.
Friday night it was out. Two versions.
I saw this in Sydney, Australia last night.
It is fantastic. Kudos to Marvel for actually pulling this off. With so many Actors, egos, characters and money at play, congratulations to Mr. Whedon and all for wrangling this into a hugely fun and solid story.
It was a packed cinema and they audience loved it.
Ruffalo easily the best Hulk so far. Should have had him from the very beginning.
I think the combination of Ruffalo and Whedon is a winner. If they ever do another solo Hulk film (god I hope so), they should really stick to these two. Best film version of Hulk AND Bruce Banner.
Totally agree with this. Banner/Hulk has proven to be very difficult characters to portray, but Ruffalo & Whedon totally nailed it. I was especially impressed with Ruffalo’s portrayal of Banner.
Actually Wednesday was the ANZAC Day public holiday across Australia and New Zealand
Wednesday was a national public holiday in Australia and possibly NZ too due to ANZAC day (war remembrance). However, cinemas were only able to open from 1pm so these are great numbers.
I could easily see this opening to $160 million during opening weekend in the US. This movie is getting positive word of mouth.
It was a public holiday in Australia on Wednesday which would have contributed to the high numbers.
It was a holiday in Australia and New Zealand… ANZAC Day.
Usually any Australian box office is x10 in the US… So tracking for a $60 million opening… Which would make it the highest single opening day for a Marvel film and 9th biggest all time.
Seeing it tonight… Can’t wait!
I like in Portugal. Gonna see it tomorrow! =)
*like -> live
American movies created by American companies and based on American-created pop cultural icons should be released in America first, or at least date and day with the rest of the world, NOT behind it.
aww snookems… would you like your mommy to give you a hug?
Seriously people suck it up.
I bet many of the ones who are complaining are the group of silly Batman fans who see this as competition lol. People can love both folks, no need to get whiny.
They should be released when they can make the most money. With everyone trying to get ot of the way of the European football championships, this date works. It worked well for Marvel with Iron Man2, and gave them extra time before the Football World cup and it worked last year for Thor (for other holiday related reasons) which was ALWAYS going to find it tougher in the States.
for years Hollywood films were released in the middle of Football tournaments, and other events that Americans didn’t care about so assumed nobody else did, despite football(soccer) being the biggest sport on the face of the planet. ell lesson learned and now they release films at the best time to maximise profits. It’s just good business sense.
That doesn’t bother me at all. I am happy to see the world enjoying all that American creativity on display.
I saw this in the first session at a local cinema in Melbourne. Even though it was a smallish independent there was a big line outside. I’m hearing that in larger cinemas the lines were huge and you literally could not move. In some they were even cancelling three other movies just to screen The Avengers. The audience was a mix of young and old, which was great to see.
Big thumbs up to Marvel and Joss Whedon for bringing this to us! Who would have thought that a superhero movie could get such widespread positive anticipation and monetary response? And it also shows that a superhero movie does not have to be dark to be successful, either.
And yes, the movie is fantastic! See it in the cinema!
Cinemas traded from 9am all day yesterday. They are exempt from the 1pm opening rule.
They may be exempt but Greater Union/Birch Carol and Coyle/Event Cinema’s (they go by so many differnt names) which are the biggest cinema’s in the country still didn’t start showing movies until after 1pm
In addition to my previous comment – I was told (by an employee of the centre) that general sessions for The Avengers at Western Australia’s biggest cinema complex Event Cinemas Innaloo, were sold out yesterday afternoon.
Yeah, I normally go to Grand @ Whitfords and that was selling out very fast. Unusual for Whitfords but i guess the caliber of the movie
I work for Event Innaloo, and it quietened down a fair bit on Thursday, but was still very busy, and picked up again on Friday, there really wasn’t much point having anything else running, might as well of had Avengers on all screens. Broad demographics coming through the doors for it.
I imagine it is tracking well also because it doesn’t look stupid. Both Ghost Rider films were unable to hide how stupid they were and how horrible the acting was in the trailers. Joss gets it, and it is obvious in what I have seen so far that it will be loads of fun.
Typical, I’m from NZ but am in Canada at the moment: holiday planning fail. Guess I’ll have to wait until 4th May with the North Americans. Good to see it doing well though, and the rave reviews are certainly building the anticipation.
I live in kampala, and am seeing it tommrw too, so excited!!!!!!!
Typical malcontent Americans when they don’t get something first.
Did it ever occur that studios might be starting to time their movies abroad so as to ensure that they make the most of other countries schedules, public holidays or events to make sure they can make as much as they can? Thought not. That would require consideration of other Countries.
For instance, the UK has the Olympic Games in the summer. No-one should be releasing a tentpole in the UK around that time. So if you want to make money you might wanna release it a bit earlier.
“Avengers” premiered here in Italy yesterday, too. there was a special early screening on tuesday night at my local theater (Maybe the best in Italy) but it was impossible to find tickets. Yesterday the afternoon show was crowded! couldn’t find tickets for evening show.
Regarding the earlier release in other countries than the US well, I am very happy. Consider that usually movies here are released one or two months after the premiere in the US. For TDKR we’ll have to wait till late August! Luckily for me I’ll be in California late August.
it was a blasts! watching this film in IMAX is a great and exciting experience…i wouldn’t be surprised if it goes on to beat the records of other big comic book movie franchise at the box office!
I mean… late July!
What some of our American cousins fail to understand is that releasing a movie outside of the US first is a brilliant business strategy.
Not only to take advantage of national holidays, but to build hype. It’s breaking international records, getting positive word of mouth, by the time it finally is released in America hype will be at it’s highest point, which means it will have a huge opening weekend.