“Infinity War” is Highest-Grossing Superhero Flick Ever

More good news for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as its newest entry, Avengers: Infinity War, is now officially the highest-grossing superhero movie of all time.

Fitting enough, it takes this title by passing three other movies in the franchise: Black Panther, Avengers: Age of Ultron and the original Avengers. So yeah, the top three superhero movies ever are now all Avengers flicks, with another MCU movie at #4. The highest non-MCU entry, now at #5, is Warner Bros.’s The Dark Knight.

The Avengers’ gross was $1.52 billion, while at the time of this writing, Infinity War is at $1.608 billion. Some believe that it may even reach $2 billion by the end of its run, something that only three other movies (Avatar, Titanic and Star Wars: The Force Awakens) have ever achieved.

This is one of many records that the film has managed to break. Among other things, it has managed to reach the biggest domestic opening weekend ever, with $247.96 million; the biggest worldwide opening weekend ever, with $640.5 million; and is the fastest movie to ever reach $1 billion, at 11 days.

But the other MCU movies should not feel too bad. Black Panther is still in the lead for the franchise’s biggest domestic gross, getting $694 million in the United States compared to $550 million for Avengers: Infinity War. Whether or not it can steal that record away eventually remains to be seen.

All this indicates that the film has been a massive success, even beyond what the people at Disney and Marvel Studios seemed to expect. In a way, we should have seen this coming—this was a massive project in the works since at least 2012, when the villain Thanos (Josh Brolin) first appeared at the end of The Avengers. The movie included more than 80 characters, including just about every hero in the MCU films, and had one shocking cliffhanger ending.

With all that said, it is entirely possible that the movie will not keep these titles for long—the fourth Avengers film, following up on that ending, will be released next year. It is also being directed by Joe and Anthony Russo, and one suspects that it will be another entry that every fan rushes to see.