Welcome to the Road to AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR. This is my own little retrospective of each of Marvel Studios' films every week of 2018 and by the time I am done looking back at all of the MCU movies, Infinity War will be releasing in theaters in the U.S. on May 4. I've already talked about IRON MAN, THE INCREDIBLE HULK, IRON MAN 2, THOR, and CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER.... so now on to the big one... THE AVENGERS.
Before Marvel Studios brought on Joss Whedon to write and direct this ambitious ensemble movie, there was a script in place by writer Zak Penn. Once Whedon saw Penn's script the alleged story goes that he told studio head Kevin Feige to pretend that script draft never existed. Feige agreed for a Page One re-write by Whedon as long as the Avengers fought among themselves at some point in the movie and Loki was the film's main villain.
Previous Bruce Banner / Incredible Hulk was actor Edward Norton, but after a reported disagreement about story credits for THE INCREDIBLE HULK, the common thought was that he was replaced by actor Mark Ruffalo in THE AVENGERS because the studio wanted a new actor with less past baggage. Feige denied this saying he wanted an actor who was more creatively and collaboratively in line with what they wanted to accomplish in THE AVENGERS.
Filming was scheduled to take place mostly in Detroit, in 2011, but when the state's governor removed their film tax incentives, the production moved to Cleveland. And this is where things got cool for me because at the time I was in my final year of college in downtown Cleveland at Cleveland State University while THE AVENGERS was filming. I got to see many public sets and action pieces while being filmed, but due to still being in college I had not yet launched DailySuperHero.com; which launched in February 2012.
Here's two photos from filming in Downtown Cleveland taken by our convention writer Ashley...
Anyway, to say THE AVENGERS was a highly anticipated movie is an understatement. I remember the buzz around the movie being enormous. So much so it felt that the film was about to be a huge blockbuster hit or a huge disappointment. Luckily, when the trailer finally hit, blockbuster status seemed inevitable.
Opening in U.S. theaters on May 4, 2012, THE AVENGERS broke all sorts of box office records. The most notable was how the film became the first ever to gross over $200 million in an opening weekend. THE AVENGERS took in over $207 million topping the previous record holder HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HOLLOWS PART 2 ($169 million.) This record would stand for over three years until JURASSIC WORLD would beat it taking in over $208 million.
THE AVENGERS also opened to rave reviews and a very strong word-of-mouth which helped it become the first movie to bring in over $100 million in its second weekend of release, with $103 million. This record would also be beaten by JURASSIC WORLD, three years later, with its $106 million in its second weekend of release.
Domestically, the ensemble film would be only the third film (at that time) to finish with over $600 million in box office ticket sales. It would finish its run with a total of $623 million. Only James Cameron's AVATAR ($750M) and TITANTIC ($659M) were above it. And to this day, THE AVENGERS is only one of six films to ever break over $600 million domestically, with the other three films being STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS ($936M), JURASSIC WORLD ($652M), and STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI ($614M).
Worldwide, THE AVENGERS became Marvel Studios' first $1 billion blockbuster film, taking in a total of $1.5 billion. Since its release IRON MAN 3, AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON, and CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR have joined its ranks in the $1B Club. Overall, THE AVENGERS ranks No. 5 on the all-time (unadjusted for inflation) worldwide box office gross list.
THE AVENGERS took super hero movies, and the genre, to new heights in the movie industry by proving that a large interconnected long-form story narrative spanning across multiple franchises actually worked. To this very day, other studios have been trying to replicate this strategy in their own way and none have been as successful as Marvel Studios.
THE AVENGERS concluded what Marvel Studios named Phase 1 of their cinematic universe and Phase 2 would begin the following year with IRON MAN 3.
Written by Daniel Wolf, Founder & Publisher
Previous Road to Infinity War Posts:
Road to Infinity War - CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER Retrospective
Road to Infinity War - THOR Retrospective
Road to Infinity War - IRON MAN 2 Retrospective
Road to Infinity War - THE INCREDIBLE HULK Retrospective
Road to Infinity War - IRON MAN Retrospective
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