Avengers: Endgame is heading back into theaters with enough commercial momentum to potentially lead the domestic box office again. The Encore edition, arriving September 25, is projected to earn between $25 million and $28 million over its opening weekend—a remarkable forecast for a film originally released seven years ago.
It will not have the weekend to itself. A new Resident Evil release is projected in the $24 million to $26 million range, creating a notably close contest at the top of the chart. The difference between those ranges is narrow enough that the eventual No. 1 result may come down to how strongly the rerelease performs beyond its most dedicated Marvel audience.
What distinguishes this from an ordinary nostalgia screening is its role in the next Avengers story. Endgame Encore includes new footage intended to connect the 2019 blockbuster to Avengers: Doomsday, which is scheduled for December 18. That gives the rerelease two overlapping jobs: invite audiences back for one of the defining superhero-event movies of its era, and establish a narrative runway for the next one.
A rerelease with a new mission
In theatrical terms, a rerelease is a return engagement for a movie that has already completed its original release cycle. Such releases can offer fans another opportunity to see a major film on the big screen, but the Encore edition has a more specific hook: additional material that directly relates to an upcoming sequel.
That detail matters because it changes the question facing moviegoers. Rather than simply asking whether they want to revisit Endgame, some will be weighing whether the new material makes the screening important preparation for Doomsday. Joe Russo, a director of Avengers: Doomsday, has explicitly framed the connection that way.
“It’s gonna connect the story of the two movies,” Russo said. “There’s a natural progression from Endgame into Doomsday, which is also inclusive of all the other stories that have been playing out. I think it’s required viewing for following the story in Doomsday.”
“Required viewing” is, of course, a promotional description rather than a guarantee that every audience member must revisit the film to understand the December release. Still, it is a clear statement of creative intent. The new footage is positioned as story material, not merely a celebratory thank-you or a detached post-credits joke.
That also raises the stakes for spoiler-conscious fans. The material has already appeared online following the movie’s Korean release, and it is said to contain substantial revelations. Anyone aiming to encounter it inside a theater may want to be cautious around searches, social feeds, video thumbnails, and discussion spaces connected to Endgame or Doomsday.
There is already plenty of fan attention on what the added scene could mean, including discussion around a potential Tony Stark-related theory. Readers who want to examine that possibility should proceed with appropriate spoiler caution in our look at the Endgame Encore stinger and its Doctor Doom implications.
The weekend race is unusually tight
Box-office tracking is a projection, not a final result. It estimates what a movie could earn based on the information available before the weekend, which means the ranges are more useful than treating one particular number as settled fact. On the current estimates, Endgame Encore has a slight advantage over Resident Evil, but their forecast ranges overlap heavily.
- Avengers: Endgame Encore: $25 million–$28 million projected domestic opening weekend
- Resident Evil: $24 million–$26 million projected domestic opening weekend
- The Heart of the Beast: $17 million–$20 million projected
- Primetime: $17 million–$20 million projected
- Forgotten Island: $15 million–$17 million projected
Below the likely top two, the contest for third is also crowded. The Heart of the Beast, starring Brad Pitt, and Robert Pattinson’s Primetime are each projected between $17 million and $20 million. Animated adventure Forgotten Island follows close behind with a projected $15 million to $17 million.
For Endgame Encore, the projection is especially interesting because it tests a film’s continuing ability to function as an event long after audiences first saw it. A new release normally has the advantage of novelty. Here, Marvel’s advantage is familiarity combined with a newly relevant piece of the larger franchise storyline.
Why the Avatar milestone is part of the conversation
A strong run for the Encore edition could also affect the all-time worldwide box-office conversation. The rerelease has the potential to push Avengers: Endgame past James Cameron’s Avatar and reclaim the title of highest-grossing movie of all time.
That possibility gives every ticket sale a second significance. The weekend chart measures the immediate competition between current releases, while the worldwide lifetime total measures a film’s performance across its entire theatrical history, including rereleases. They are separate scoreboards, but both create a reason for audiences to pay attention to this particular return.
There is recent evidence that established blockbuster franchises can still rearrange that all-time list. Spider-Man: Brand New Day recently entered the top 10 after passing Cameron’s Titanic. The list is not fixed, and a rerelease can matter when the title involved is already operating near a historic threshold.
That does not mean an Endgame victory over Avatar is assured. The supplied projections concern the domestic opening weekend, while the all-time crown is determined by a much larger worldwide total. The key point is that the Encore run has put the prospect back in play. Whether it gets there will depend on the film’s broader theatrical performance, not just its first few days in North America.
What viewers should expect—and what remains unknown
The confirmed premise is straightforward: this is Avengers: Endgame with new footage that links into Avengers: Doomsday. The additional footage has been characterized as containing major revelations, and Russo has described the rerelease as part of the progression into the next Avengers movie.
Beyond that, viewers should be wary of treating online speculation as confirmation. The existence of the new footage and its connection to Doomsday are established here; specific interpretations of what it means for characters, variants, Doctor Doom, or future story events remain analysis unless Marvel itself confirms them on screen or through an official statement.
That distinction is particularly useful in a franchise where a short scene can create a great deal of theory-building. An inference is a conclusion drawn from available clues. A confirmation is information directly established by the film or its creators. Fans can enjoy the former, but should not mistake it for the latter—especially when the footage is circulating in fragmented form online.
For people who already know Endgame well, the practical appeal is the combination of the theatrical revisit and the newly added bridge to December. For those less invested in the Marvel continuity, the rerelease’s box-office performance will still be an interesting measure of how much audience appetite remains for communal, large-screen superhero events built around a familiar title.
The calendar makes the strategy clear
The timing is deliberate. Avengers: Endgame Encore opens September 25, while Avengers: Doomsday follows on December 18. That gap is long enough for the Encore edition to have its own theatrical moment, but close enough for its new material to operate as a prompt for the next chapter.
Marvel’s framing also acknowledges that the path from Endgame to Doomsday includes other stories. Russo described the progression as inclusive of the stories that have played out in between, rather than suggesting that one added scene alone carries all the context. The Encore presentation appears designed to reconnect the franchise’s most consequential prior Avengers event to the one arriving at the end of the year.
For the box office, that narrative bridge may be the differentiator. A standard rerelease relies primarily on affection for an older movie. Endgame Encore has that affection, a possible all-time gross milestone, and a direct incentive for viewers who want fresh Doomsday context. With projections putting it just ahead of Resident Evil, those combined attractions may be enough to make a seven-year-old blockbuster the weekend’s biggest draw once again.
