Marvel fans clearly weren’t done with Avengers: Endgame just yet. The 2019 blockbuster returned to theaters this weekend in an expanded re-release, and audiences turned up in big enough numbers to send it straight back to No. 1 at the North American box office, just months before Avengers: Doomsday arrives.
Now retitled Avengers: Endgame Encore and featuring new bonus material, the film made $26 million from 3,060 domestic locations. That’s a pretty remarkable result for a movie that has already been seen by, well, basically everyone and is readily available to watch at home. The international numbers were even bigger, with another $60 million coming from overseas markets. Altogether, the re-release brought in $86 million worldwide over the weekend.
According to Variety, the result stands out because theatrical re-releases don’t usually come anywhere close to this kind of money. David A. Gross of FranchiseRe noted that re-releases rarely cross the $10 million mark, which makes Endgame Extra a rather unusual case. Meanwhile, Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil slipped into second place in its second weekend, adding another $23 million domestically. That pushed its North American total to $103.4 million and its worldwide haul to $196.5 million.
Setting the Stage for Avengers: Doomsday
The interesting part isn’t just the $26 million. Bringing Endgame back to theaters this close to Avengers: Doomsday is obviously meant to get people thinking about the Avengers again, and judging by the turnout, it seems to be doing exactly that. The Infinity Saga finale is still one of Marvel’s biggest cinematic events, so putting it back on the big screen gives audiences an easy excuse to revisit all of that before the next chapter begins.
Of course, Endgame Encore wasn’t the only movie drawing people to theaters this weekend. A24’s new crime drama Primetime, starring Robert Pattinson, opened with $19.2 million and reportedly drew a particularly strong under-30 audience. Brad Pitt’s The Heart of the Beast followed with $20 million, while Forgotten Island added $12.8 million. Both Primetime and Forgotten Island also picked up strong word-of-mouth, along with positive reactions from critics and moviegoers.
Those new releases, combined with the continued strength of the wider box office, helped push the 2026 domestic total to $7.8 billion. That’s getting the industry pretty close to the $8 billion mark, which isn’t a bad place to be. For Marvel, though, the bigger takeaway is probably the simplest one: people were willing to pay to see Avengers: Endgame again, even when they could easily watch it somewhere else.
And with Avengers: Doomsday scheduled to hit theaters this December, Marvel now has a very convenient reminder that its biggest heroes can still bring audiences out in force.