“Avengers: Endgame” probably had more hype than any other movie in HISTORY . . . and yet, it somehow still managed to EXCEED expectations.

Opening weekend projections for “Endgame” started at around $250 million last month and grew to $300 million over the past week or two . . . but it ended up raking in $350 MILLION in the U.S., and $1.2 BILLION worldwide.

That shatters the previous records of $257.7 million domestically, and $640.5 million globally, which were both were set by “Avengers: Infinity War” last year.

“Endgame” is the fastest movie to ever top $1 billion globally, doing it in just five days. It took “Infinity War” 11 days.

And “Endgame” ALREADY ranks as the 18th largest worldwide release ever . . . and the sixth largest worldwide release in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  The 22 movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe have now grossed over $19.8 billion worldwide, and NINE of them have topped $1 billion at the global box office.

Of course, there was no competition . . . because no other major movie wanted to share an opening weekend with “Endgame”.

Here’s the Top 10 . . .

1.  NEW:  “Avengers: Endgame”,  $350 million

2.  “Captain Marvel”,  $8.1 million.  Up to $413.6 million in its 8th week.

3.  “The Curse of La Llorona”, $7.5 million.  Up to $41.3 million in its 2nd week.

4.  “Breakthrough”, $6.3 million.  Up to $26.1 million in its 2nd week.

5.  “Shazam!”,  $5.5 million.  Up to $131.1 million in its 4th week.

6.  “Little”,  $3.4 million.  Up to $35.8 million in its 3rd week.

7.  “Dumbo”,  $3.2 million.  Up to $107 million in its 5th week.

8.  “Pet Sematary”,  $1.3 million.  Up to $52.6 million in its 4th week.

9.  “Us”,  $1.1 million.  Up to $172.8 million in its 6th week.

10.  Disneynature’s “Penguins”,  $1.1 million.  Up to $5.7 million in its 2nd week.

For what it’s worth, Deadline.com says that when the dust settles the final opening weekend numbers for “Endgame” could be even higher . . . at around $354.4 million.

(Here are more on the individual records “Endgame” broke.)

(And last we checked, “Endgame” had a 96% critics score on RottenTomatoes.com, and a 92% audience score.)

 

“Avengers: Endgame” Chaos: A Spoiler-Induced Beating, Uncontrollable Crying, and Dangerously High Heart Rates

Not all the craziness around “Avengers: Endgame” this weekend was GOOD craziness.  Here’s a round-up of Avengers-related chaos . . .

1.  A guy in Hong Kong walked out of a screening and started LOUDLY revealing spoilers while people were waiting in line to see it.  So several fans stepped out of line to BEAT HIM UP.  And there’s a photo of him being treated by medical staff.

2.  A 21-year-old woman in China had to be hospitalized for uncontrollable CRYING after seeing the movie.  She started hyperventilating, so her friends took her to the ER.  She also had chest pain, muscle spasms, and numbness in her limbs.

3.  Fans on Twitter were so amped up, they forgot how to spell.  They kept spelling “Avengers” with an “R” instead of an “N.”  So the hashtag “AVERGERS Endgame” was trending for a while.

4.  Fans with smartwatches have been posting screenshots of their heart rates SPIKING during the movie.  We’ve seen as high as 180 beats per minute.  But so far, there haven’t been any reports of the film actually KILLING anyone.