Avengers: Infinity War Scores Best Day Opening Day Ever in Russia

Avengers: Infinity War has continued its box office record-breaking streak by scoring the biggest opening day of all time in Russia, where it grossed $4.9 million on Thursday. As the movie opened in new international markets this week, it crossed the $1 billion mark at the box office, and is well on its way to becoming the biggest superhero movie of all time.


Bringing together almost every superhero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Infinity War is a galaxy-spanning epic battle to prevent cosmic supervillain Thanos from acquiring all six Infinity Stones and using them to wipe out half of all life in the universe. As the culminating story of one of Hollywood’s most consistently successful and record-breaking mega-franchises, Infinity War was always expected to do well, but its first week at the box office alone has silenced any possible doubts there might have been.


Per Variety, Infinity War scored a $4.9 million debut in Russia on Thursday May 3, the biggest ever opening day mark for a movie, and also making it the first ever movie to sell more than a million tickets in a single day. Presumably this number is only for Russia, as opposed to the entirety of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), which are generally grouped together as one box office total, since $4.9 million trails considerably behind the $8 million opening day gross for Iron Man 3 in Russia and other CIS states reported by THR in 2013, and is also short of the $5 million opening for Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides reported by Reuters in 2011. If Infinity War stays on a similar track to those movies throughout the weekend, we can expect a $25-30 million total opening weekend in Russia and other CIS states.


According to the MPAA, Russia is the twelfth largest film market in the world in terms of box office revenue and (as Iron Man 3‘s box office also attests), there are a lot of Marvel fans in Russia. The biggest upcoming test of the movie’s international power will come when Avengers: Infinity War arrives in China on May 11, where we estimate it will hit at least a $135 million opening. All told, Infinity War will soon overtake Marvel’s earlier major release this year, Black Panther, which grossed $1.336 billion worldwide. It will also almost certainly pass the $1.518 billion global gross of The Avengers, Marvel’s first big superhero team-up success.


As these numbers come in, it doubtless won’t be long before speculation turns to whether next year’s Avengers 4 can possibly outdo Infinity War‘s record-breaking performance. That isn’t a given, keeping in mind that Avengers: Age of Ultron marked a slightly more modest performance than the first Avengers movie, grossing a “mere” $1.405 billion. Still, it’s safe to say that fans are pretty interested to see how Infinity War‘s shocking ending plays out in the sequel.