'Avengers: Infinity War' pounces early, thanks to T'Challa
Commentary: At the risk of looking a gift horse in the mouth, I have a few ideas as to why Marvel pushed the movie forward.
- Once wrote 50 articles in one month.
In a humorous exchange, Marvel Studios' official Twitter account announced Thursday that "Avengers: Infinity War" would be moved up from its original May 4 release date to April 27. A whole week earlier!
Why? A few reasons...
'Black Panther' and its unprecedented success
Trust me, Marvel is over-the-moon ecstatic at the success of "Black Panther." As of Thursday it's earned $750 million-plus dollars at the worldwide box office in just about two weeks of release, making it one of the top grossing Marvel Cinematic Universe films ever produced.
I don't think Marvel or Disney were counting on "Black Panther" to take on such a life of its own. Right now, it's pacing to be the highest grossing Marvel film -- and superhero film -- in the US ever. And as happy as Disney is, they do *not* want a film that has literally all of its biggest franchise characters (including Black Panther characters) to make less money than "Black Panther."
Disney knows that even though Black Panther, Okoye, M'Baku and other characters from the movie will appear in "Infinity War," they're going to be extremely hard-pressed to get black grandmas, like my mom, to go see an Avengers movie in the theater. The last film she saw in a theater was "The Passion of the Christ" in 2004! Yet here she was going to see a superhero movie, less than two months after having her toes amputated from her left foot.
So if Disney thinks that everyone who saw "Black Panther" in theaters will also come out for "Avengers: Infinity War" because T'Challa and company are in it, think again. My mom and many others like her will wait for video.
And while not as many old black people will come out for the film, there will be many others (myself included) who will see it five, six, seven, even eight times in that period. Moving the movie up a week is a shrewd move for Marvel Studios and Disney, giving it three weeks of virtually zero competition from other big movie releases (see below). It has a chance to go ahead of whatever Black Panther's three-week total proves to be.
Which brings me to…
Deadpool and Han Solo
"Deadpool 2" will be huge. The first movie made just over $363M in its initial release in the US, and the sequel opens May 18, two weeks after the original release date of "Infinity War." Two weeks is a lot of time for a big tentpole movie to make money, but not enough compared to others. One of the reasons "Black Panther" is breaking records left and right is a lack of competition. "Infinity War" won't have the same luxury.
In fact, with "Solo: A Star Wars Story" coming Memorial Day weekend on May 24, giving the Avengers property a week head start in theaters makes sense. With Disney as the parent company of both Lucasfilm (owner of Star Wars movies) and Marvel Studios, it's easy to see why pushing "Infinity War" forward a week is good for business.
US audiences don't want spoilers!
We've been waiting for this movie for six years. I've been waiting for this movie my entire life! Or at least since I first read "The Infinity Gauntlet" in high school.
And the worst thing about being a Marvel Studios fan living in the US is that the movies launch in (what feels like) every other country before they get to me. Sometimes a week or so before. So not only do I have to deal with the painful jealousy of other people getting to see my baby before I do, but I want to go into this movie as cold as possible.
For me, the less I know, the more I enjoy twists and turns, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels this way.
"Avengers: Infinity War" is the beginning of the culmination of the MCU as we've known it since 2008. My guess is that Marvel knows how much it would suck (and how much its US fan base would complain) if huge spoilers got out online.
"Infinity War" now opens April 27 worldwide, so don't worry, you still have time to catch up if you've missed any films.
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