Disney Soars As 'Avengers: Endgame' Is Already Setting Box Office Records

Walt Disney Co DIS stock shot to an all-time high Thursday as advance and opening night ticket sales for “Avengers: Endgame” set records leading to projections that the culmination of the Marvel Cinematic Universe could shatter opening weekend box office records.

“We believe 'Endgame' will live up to its hype and set a new all-time opening weekend record,” MKM Partners analyst Eric Handler said in a Friday note.

Some projections have the movie topping $275 million in U.S. box office receipts, which would best the previous top opening weekend record of $257.6 million held by one of the predecessors in the series, “Avengers: Infinity War.”

The movie started showing Thursday night, with some theaters showing it around the clock. 

Editor's note: On Sunday morning, Disney announced "Avengers: Endgame" took in an estimated $350 million domestically and $1.2 billion globally, both new all-time records.

Disney shares were surging again Friday and are now up more than 25 percent year-to-date. The hype over the film was also boosting the share price of AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc AMC, which is planning on a cinematic madhouse over the weekend.

Advance, Early Box Office Numbers 

“AMC has dedicated more seats and more showtimes behind this film’s opening than for any other movie in our history,” AMC CEO Adam Aron said in a statement.

‘Avengers: Endgame’ Thursday Night Previews Currently A Marvel Record With $43M – Early B.O. Read https://t.co/35alPnR48v pic.twitter.com/dfIGYgk7A9

— Deadline Hollywood (@DEADLINE) April 26, 2019

AMC, the country’s largest theater chain, said the movie set records for advance sales and Thursday night box office sales and announced it would show Endgame about 58,000 times through Sunday to meet demand.

That's about 10,000 more showings than "Infinity War," which was previously the most-shown movie on opening weekend, AMC said. 

“Infinity War” eventually made $2.048 million, making it the fourth highest-grossing movie ever.

Online ticketing websites were reporting "Avengers" was smashing records.

Deadline Hollywood reported that Avengers grossed more than $40 million just in Thursday early evening shows, besting the full Thursday night opening record "Infinity War" set when it made $39 million a year ago.

BoxOffice.com reported full Thursday night previews hit $60 million.

AVENGERS: ENDGAME posted $60M in Thursday previews in North America, the highest preview figure ever reported. The previous record holder, STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS, brought in $57M #AvengersEndgame

— Boxoffice (@BoxOffice) April 26, 2019

The movie was also already breaking records overseas. By Friday morning U.S. time, it had made more than $200 million in China, where it was released Wednesday and was already into Friday evening showings. The total overseas gross was above $300 million, according to BoxOffice.com.

Box Office Drives Stock Price

Disney's stock has benefited from other catalysts, including excitement around its new recently announced streaming service Disney Plus and reports that Disney might buy more of Hulu from Comcast Corporation CMCSA. But buzz around "Avengers" is also driving the stock, according to analysts. 

Price Action

Disney shares were trading up 1.33 percent at $139.08 at the time of publication Friday, while AMC shares were up 1.14 percent at $15.48.

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Screenshot courtesy of Marvel.