Endgame Encore’s $86 Million Trial for Infinity Vision

Avengers Endgame: Encore opened to an estimated $86 million worldwide over September 25 to 27, with more than half that total from Disney’s new Infinity Vision screens. North America put up $26 million from 3,060 theaters, and overseas markets added $60 million across 53 territories, according to Disney and Rentrak estimates.

The 2019 film is still on Disney+, and it still sold like a new event movie. That is the point of the exercise. Disney used a seven-year-old title to stress-test a house badge for big screens before Avengers: Doomsday arrives on December 18, the same date as Dune: Part Three.

Endgame Encore Opened to $86 Million Worldwide

Disney called the weekend the second-highest global debut ever for a re-release, and the third-best domestic start in that class. The 1997 Star Wars special edition opened to $35.9 million in North America, and The Lion King 3D opened to $30.2 million in 2011. Encore’s $26 million sits behind both, unadjusted, and still crushed the usual re-issue floor.

David A. Gross, who publishes the FranchiseRe box-office letter, put that floor in plain terms. “Re-releases rarely earn more than $10 million,” he said, calling the run an early word-of-mouth machine for Doomsday.

HOW ENCORE STACKS AGAINST OTHER RE-RELEASES

China led overseas with $13.5 million, then the U.K. and Ireland at $5.4 million and Mexico at $4.2 million. India added $2.8 million, Japan and Italy $2.6 million each, Brazil $2.2 million, France $2.1 million, Germany $2.0 million, and Spain $1.7 million. Endgame’s lifetime total is now $2.885 billion, $39 million behind Avatar, and Marvel Studios’ 38 films sit at $35.075 billion. In 2019 the original Endgame opened to $1.2 billion worldwide, the first MPA title to clear $1 billion in a single weekend, and $357 million domestic, a U.S. record until Spider-Man: Brand New Day opened to $360 million this summer.

More Than Half Came From Infinity Vision

Disney said the film opened in over 3,000 theaters, of which over 1,300 Infinity Vision screens accounted for about 52 percent of the opening-weekend figure. IMAX, which is not part of that badge, still delivered an estimated $13.7 million, or 16 percent of the $86 million. The house label already out-earned IMAX on a movie IMAX actually played.

That split is the dress rehearsal. Doomsday will not have U.S. IMAX in December. Encore just showed that Disney can park a Marvel event on exhibitor-owned giant screens and still take the weekend.

Verified audiences scored the re-issue 96 percent on Rotten Tomatoes across more than 1,000 ratings, and PostTrak logged 5 out of 5 stars from both general and family crowds. The original 2019 cut is what most of those people paid to see again. The new badge is what Disney needed them to notice.

Marvel sold the tickets in August as a premium-only reunion.

This is the encore.

Relive the experience when Avengers Endgame: Encore returns to theaters September 25. Tickets now available for IMAX and Infinity Vision screens: https://t.co/6pjMpct4UL pic.twitter.com/Ekb5b9on1o

— Marvel Entertainment (@Marvel) August 25, 2026

What Infinity Vision Certifies

Infinity Vision is a Disney certification for premium large format theaters, not a new camera, projector, or shooting format. A hall needs a screen at least 45 feet wide, 7.1 or immersive sound such as Dolby Atmos, and brightness of 14 foot-lamberts in 2D or 6 foot-lamberts in 3D. IMAX, Dolby, and 4DX keep their own deals and do not carry the badge.

Andrew Cripps, head of theatrical distribution for The Walt Disney Studios, rolled it out at CinemaCon on April 16. “Infinity Vision certification extends that commitment to the theaters themselves,” he said, describing a shared effort so audiences can find “the very best screens in their area.” At launch Disney counted 75 U.S. halls and 300 worldwide. By CineEurope it was reviewing more than 7,500 applications. By Encore weekend the working figure was those 1,300-plus screens.

A 45-Foot Screen and the DCI Brightness Floor

Fourteen foot-lamberts is 48 cd/m² at screen center, the DCI and SMPTE ST 431-1 value for 2D digital projection, not a new brightness target. Dolby Cinema aims near 31.5 foot-lamberts, more than double. IMAX with Laser claims about 50 percent more light than the DCI spec. The 45-foot width is a large modern multiplex screen, not a custom IMAX wall, and the badge says nothing about aspect ratio, curve, seat distance, or acoustic treatment. Two rooms can wear the same seal and sound unlike each other, because 7.1 and Atmos both pass.

INFINITY VISION VERSUS IMAX

Fully immersive 4D rooms and sidewall screens can also qualify, Disney says, even when they miss the width or brightness cuts. Operators keep their own chain labels. The Infinity Vision mark sits on top as a finder tool, with a dedicated ticketing site pointing people to certified halls.

IMAX Still Took $13.7 Million

IMAX CEO Rich Gelfond has called Infinity Vision a marketing push rather than a technical step, and noted that it adds no screens to the world circuit. IMAX runs about 416 screens in the United States and nearly 1,700 worldwide. Those rooms still played Encore, and $13.7 million is a real take for a seven-year-old title. It is also a smaller slice than Disney’s new label already claimed on the same weekend.

The comparison will not be available in December in the United States. Dune: Part Three has the domestic IMAX window for three weeks from December 18, a lock tied to footage shot for the format. Doomsday is due to play IMAX only in select overseas markets. Spider-Man: Brand New Day had already been kept off U.S. IMAX this summer. Infinity Vision exists because that pattern held.

Four New Scenes Sat Behind the Premium Ticket

Disney spent the summer selling the re-release as a story bridge into Doomsday, with a new title and a gated end tag. Co-director Joe Russo told Fandango the extra material connects the two films and called Encore required viewing for Doomsday. Co-director Anthony Russo, talking to Marvel, said the additions would not mess with the 2019 cut. They did not. The first three hours are the movie people already know. A short intro from Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr. fronts it, and almost five minutes of new footage lands at the end.

I think it’s required viewing for following the story in Doomsday.

Joe Russo, co-director, Fandango interview

That line oversells what is on screen. The new work is a setup reel stapled onto a finale, and some halls never ran the full set. Disney reserved an extra Doomsday look for IMAX and Infinity Vision tickets. Buyers on a standard print got a shorter add-on. That is the format split working as designed, and it is why a wrong ticket feels like a shortchange.

THE FOUR NEW SCENES

• Steve and Peggy: The 2019 dance continues for about a minute until a knock comes; Peggy opens the door and Loki, in TVA clothes, says, “No. But I believe I can help you. Both of you.”
• Banner’s bunker: Bruce Banner records a message about a first incident in more than a decade and a new gamma serum; the lights fail and Doctor Doom says, “I’m here to collect you,” before a green mark appears and Banner is gone.
• TVA floor: Mobius and O.B. watch two Earths throw missiles at each other, then an alarm as as many as 3,000 universes start to collide; O.B. warns, “The multiverse is collapsing.”
• The hammer tag: The old Endgame credit sound of metal on metal now cuts to quick shots of Doom forging and wearing his mask, a recast of a beat Joe Russo once described as a bookend for Iron Man.

Ke Huy Quan and Owen Wilson show up in that TVA passage, and Mark Ruffalo is in the bunker scene, none of them having been on the public Doomsday cast list when Marvel first read it out. The extra peek Disney promised for IMAX and Infinity Vision sits on top of those four. Watch the wrong format and you leave without it.

Doomsday Opens December 18 Without U.S. IMAX

Encore was never going to catch Avatar. It was always a two-month ad with a box-office receipt attached, and the receipt was large enough to take the worldwide chart from Resident Evil, Heart of the Beast, and Primetime on a late-September frame. The next date on the calendar is the one the badge was built for.

THE ROAD TO DECEMBER 18

1. April 16, 2026: Disney launches Infinity Vision at CinemaCon, with Kevin Feige announcing Endgame’s return as the first title on the badge.
2. June 2026: CineEurope sets the 45-foot, 7.1, and 14-foot-lambert cuts and a ticketing site; more than 7,500 halls have applied.
3. September 25, 2026: Endgame Encore opens, and Infinity Vision screens take about 52 percent of an $86 million weekend while IMAX still plays the film.
4. December 18, 2026: Avengers: Doomsday and Dune: Part Three open on the same day; U.S. IMAX is reserved for Villeneuve’s film, including Dune: Part Three in IMAX 70mm from December 17.

Doomsday still has Dolby Cinema, chain-owned giant screens, and every Infinity Vision hall Disney can keep in the program. It does not have the IMAX circuit in the United States. Encore already ran that playbook on a movie people could stream at home, and the rooms with the new seal did the heavy lifting.

Avengers: Doomsday and Dune: Part Three share December 18. U.S. IMAX screens are already spoken for. The Encore weekend showed which other rooms Disney will ask people to pay for instead.