Avengers: Endgame is heading back to theaters. Disney confirmed at CineEurope in Barcelona this week that the 2019 Marvel finale will return on September 25, 2026, under a new title, Avengers: Endgame Encore, with extra footage the studio says will “create a bridge” to Avengers: Doomsday in December.
The move is built to do two things at once. Endgame Encore is widely expected to push the film past Avatar’s $2.923 billion global total and reclaim the all-time box office crown. It also lands three months before Doomsday, giving Disney a runway to sell premium tickets for the largest ensemble the studio has ever assembled.
What Disney Just Confirmed at CineEurope
Disney’s distribution team presented the Endgame Encore rollout to exhibitors at CineEurope in Barcelona on June 24, 2026. The film, originally released in April 2019, will get a custom introduction, additional new footage, and a special end tag exclusive to Infinity Vision and IMAX screens. Disney’s CineEurope presentation on the Infinity Vision rollout laid out the new premium format alongside the film title.
Cinema United said Infinity Vision has drawn more than 7,500 certification applications from exhibitor screens around the world ahead of Endgame Encore’s opening. Cinema United President & CEO Michael O’Leary told the CineEurope audience that the studio is pushing a “great myriad of theatrical experiences” to movie fans. Endgame Encore will be the first major live-action showcase for the new premium certification, and Doomsday is set to anchor the format in December.
The Six-Year Box Office Chess Match
Endgame first overtook Avatar on July 21, 2019, after 89 days in release, then lost the crown in March 2021 when a Chinese re-release pushed Avatar back into the top spot. Endgame’s all-time global total sits at $2.797 billion, the figure it closed with in 2019. Avatar’s running total has climbed to $2.923 billion, according to industry trackers. The two films have traded the record across the same Disney corporate umbrella for nearly seven years.
As of May 2026, Avatar still tops the list at about $2.92 billion, per Statista’s running tally. Avatar’s lead came almost entirely from re-releases, including the 2021 China push and later screenings tied to the Way of Water and Fire and Ash theatrical runs. Where the Avatar franchise stands after Fire and Ash is a reminder that the 2009 film’s box office keeps moving while Endgame’s does not.
- Endgame worldwide gross: $2.797 billion (closed 2019)
- Avatar worldwide gross: about $2.92 billion (Statista, May 2026)
- Days Endgame held #1: roughly 20 months before Avatar reclaimed it
- Endgame Encore opening: September 25, 2026
- Doomsday opening: December 18, 2026
Whether the Encore can finish the job depends on turnout, not just on paper math. Disney is not framing this as a one-off nostalgic play; the new footage is being sold as connective tissue to the Doomsday marketing push that will follow. Premium-format demand, with both Infinity Vision and IMAX holding the exclusive end tag, raises the average ticket price for every seat Endgame Encore sells. The audience that missed Endgame in theaters seven years ago now has a built-in reason to show up: the bridge scene Joe Russo has been teasing since April.
Why the Russos Are Calling It a ‘Bridge’
In April, at the Sands Film Festival in St Andrews, Scotland, Joe Russo laid out the strategy. The Endgame re-release, he said, will include footage that is set in the Doomsday story. That makes Encore the first Marvel film in seven years designed specifically to lead into a specific next chapter.
“It’s an opportunity to create a bridge from Endgame to Doomsday in a very unique way,” he told the audience. Russo also described the re-release as a “critical companion story” and a setup for what audiences will see in Doomsday in December.
Hi D23 members, this is Joe and Anthony Russo. Right now we are in London shooting Marvel Studios’ Avengers: Doomsday. This movie is, to say the least, a big one for us. It is bigger than anything we have ever done. We are bringing together so many of your favorite heroes to face one of the greatest threats to the MCU.
The Russos recorded that message for D23 from the Doomsday set in London. The Russo brothers’ recorded D23 message from the London set is the marketing spine Disney is leaning on: a 2019 finale, repurposed with new connective scenes, sold as the opening act of a December tentpole. The Encore’s special end tag, exclusive to Infinity Vision and IMAX, sits in the same lane, designed to plant Doomsday imagery in the final seconds of a 2026 Endgame screening.
The Largest Cast the MCU Has Ever Assembled
Avengers: Doomsday is scheduled to open on December 18, 2026, as part of Phase Six of the MCU. Anthony and Joe Russo are directing, returning to the franchise after Endgame and Infinity War. The script is by Michael Waldron and Stephen McFeely, and the production is anchored at Pinewood Studios in England, with location filming in Bahrain.
The premise pulls together heroes from three separate universes. The Avengers, Wakandans, and New Avengers come from the main Earth-616 reality. The Fantastic Four arrive from the Earth-828 setting of The Fantastic Four: First Steps. And the original X-Men from the 20th Century Fox era round out the cross-franchise collision. That structure is what lets the film hold the largest confirmed cast in MCU history.
- Original Avengers era: Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Chris Evans (Steve Rogers), Anthony Mackie (Sam Wilson / Captain America), Tom Hiddleston (Loki), Sebastian Stan (Bucky Barnes), Letitia Wright (Shuri / Black Panther), Paul Rudd (Scott Lang / Ant-Man)
- New Avengers from Thunderbolts*: Florence Pugh (Yelena Belova), Wyatt Russell (John Walker), David Harbour (Red Guardian), Hannah John-Kamen (Ghost), Lewis Pullman (Bob Reynolds / Sentry)
- Fantastic Four from Earth-828: Pedro Pascal (Reed Richards / Mister Fantastic), Vanessa Kirby (Sue Storm / Invisible Woman), Joseph Quinn (Johnny Storm / Human Torch), Ebon Moss-Bachrach (Ben Grimm / The Thing)
- Original X-Men from Fox era: Ian McKellen (Magneto), James Marsden (Cyclops), Patrick Stewart (Charles Xavier / Professor X), Alan Cumming (Nightcrawler), Kelsey Grammer (Beast), Rebecca Romijn (Mystique)
- Wakanda and Talokan: Winston Duke (M’Baku), Tenoch Huerta Mejía (Namor), Mabel Cadena (Namora), Alex Livinalli (Attuma)
At the center of the ensemble is Robert Downey Jr., who left the MCU as Tony Stark in 2019 and is returning as Victor von Doom, also known as Doctor Doom. Marvel’s official Doomsday release and cast page lists Downey first in the credits.
At the time, [Downey] was on his way to winning the Academy Award for Oppenheimer and there was every story about “the greatest actor in the world,” and we thought, “This could be it. Let’s do it.” It’s our universe. It’s a multiverse. We can do whatever the heck we want. He played the most iconic hero. Let’s have him play the most iconic villain.
That pivot is the cleanest reason for the Endgame Encore bridge. Seven years on, audiences will see Tony Stark’s exit from the franchise reframed as a prelude to Doom’s arrival. The Encore’s new footage gives the studio a way to seed that pivot without burning any of Doomsday’s surprises. It also gives Downey a closing theatrical bow as Stark before the December film reopens his arc as Doom, and it plants a sequel hook: Secret Wars is on the schedule for December 17, 2027.
The Premium-Format Bet Behind the Re-Release
Disney launched Infinity Vision at CinemaCon in April as a new certification for premium, large-format theaters. The pitch to exhibitors is that Infinity Vision marks the screens with the biggest, brightest, and most immersive cinematic experiences available, with a 45-foot minimum screen width and immersive audio like Dolby Atmos or 7.1. Endgame Encore is the format’s first major live-action test.
Cinema United President & CEO Michael O’Leary told the CineEurope audience that Disney is “promoting the great myriad of theatrical experiences available to movie fans today.” The trade group’s framing matters because Infinity Vision’s adoption rate is the metric exhibitors will watch. With more than 7,500 screens seeking certification ahead of the Endgame Encore opening, the rollout is the broadest premium-format launch Disney has staged since the IMAX expansion of the 2010s. Cinemark CEO Sean Gamble called the launch “an important first step toward advancing this objective,” and Regal’s Eduardo Acuna said a single identifiable brand would help audiences trust they are getting the best theatrical experience. Doomsday is the second test, scheduled to anchor the format in December.
The end tag exclusive to Infinity Vision and IMAX screenings is the connective tissue. Audiences who see Endgame Encore in a standard theater will get the new footage but not the Doomsday hook at the credits. Audiences who pay for Infinity Vision or IMAX will leave with both. Disney formally launched the Infinity Vision ticketing page, InfinityVisionTickets.com, alongside the CineEurope presentation, and the Encore’s commercial success will be measured less in raw ticket count than in how many of those 7,500 screens finish their certification on time. PLFs alone can account for close to 40 percent of a tentpole’s opening weekend; that math is what Disney is underwriting.
Who’s Sidelined in This ‘Reunion’
The Doomsday billing reads like a deep reunion, but the cast list is not complete. Elizabeth Olsen’s confirmed exit from Doomsday and Secret Wars is the most visible absence; the Wanda Maximoff arc ends with the Disney+ series. Chris Evans is on the cast, but only as Steve Rogers, the man who handed the Captain America shield to Sam Wilson in Endgame, not as the shield-wielding hero himself.
Ryan Reynolds’s return as Wade Wilson / Deadpool is the subject of conflicting reports, with some outlets listing him and others not. Benedict Cumberbatch as Stephen Strange, Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton, and Tom Holland as Peter Parker are widely expected to return, but the available cast list still flags each as needing additional sourcing. Where Tom Holland reportedly fits in the new MCU is its own reporting thread, tangled up in the parallel Sony-Disney deal. For a film selling itself on a full-circle reunion, the lineup is closer to a roster than a roll call, and the Encore’s job is to sell the parts that are locked in before Doomsday confirms the rest.
Frequently Asked Questions
When does Avengers: Endgame Encore open?
Endgame Encore opens on September 25, 2026. Disney confirmed the date to exhibitors at CineEurope in Barcelona on June 24, 2026, and trade outlets including Deadline and Cinema United covered the announcement the same day.
What is different about the Endgame Encore re-release?
The re-release has been retitled Avengers: Endgame Encore and ships with a custom introduction, additional new footage, and a special end tag. Joe Russo said the new footage is set in the Doomsday story and is meant to create a bridge between the two films. The end tag is exclusive to Infinity Vision and IMAX screenings.
How close is Endgame to passing Avatar’s box office record?
Endgame’s all-time total sits at $2.797 billion, the figure it closed with in 2019. Avatar, the current record holder, is at about $2.92 billion, per Statista’s tally as of May 2026. The Encore re-release is built to close that gap, though neither Disney nor Marvel has published an internal target figure for the run.
When does Avengers: Doomsday open, and who is directing?
Doomsday opens on December 18, 2026, in the United States, as part of MCU Phase Six. Anthony and Joe Russo are directing, returning to the franchise after Endgame and Infinity War. The script is by Michael Waldron and Stephen McFeely, and production ran from April through September 2025 at Pinewood Studios in England.
Who is Robert Downey Jr. playing in Doomsday?
Downey returns as Victor von Doom, also known as Doctor Doom, the film’s primary antagonist. His previous MCU role, Tony Stark / Iron Man, died at the end of Avengers: Endgame in 2019, and Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige confirmed the casting out of CinemaCon in April.
