LOS ANGELES, September 27 — Disney and Marvel’s re-release “Avengers: Endgame Encore” topped the domestic box office with $26 million from 3,060 North American theaters over the weekend of September 25-27, according to Variety. The figure that matters for the studio, though, is the global one: $60 million overseas pushed the Encore run to $86 million worldwide. Re-releases almost never do this.
David A. Gross, who publishes the box office newsletter FranchiseRe, noted that re-releases rarely earn more than $10 million.
He called the Encore run an effective marketing exercise to build early word-of-mouth for the studio’s upcoming “Avengers: Doomsday,” which opens in December 2026 and brings back nearly all of the franchise’s core heroes.
A24’s ‘Primetime’ Opens Strong
The weekend’s other headline belonged to A24. “Primetime” opened to $19.2 million from 2,863 venues, the third-best debut in the studio’s history. It ranks behind the summer 2026 release “Backrooms” ($81.4 million) and Alex Garland’s 2024 film “Civil War” ($25.5 million), and ahead of Josh Safdie and Timothée Chalamet’s 2025 sports drama “Marty Supreme” ($15.7 million).
Directed by Lance Oppenheim, “Primetime” stars Robert Pattinson as “To Catch a Predator” host Chris Hansen. Produced for just $15 million, the film is already well-positioned to turn a theatrical profit.
Gross called it an outstanding opening for an original crime drama and credited Pattinson as a bona fide star carrying the movie.
The Bottom Line
Two very different bets paid off in the same weekend. Disney spent little to reheat a 2019 blockbuster and got a global marketing platform for December’s “Doomsday.” A24 spent $15 million on an original crime drama and got the third-biggest opening in its history. Investors will note the asymmetry.
The Encore run is a promotional asset as much as a revenue line, and Gross’s read is that the studio is buying word-of-mouth ahead of a franchise tentpole. “Primetime,” by contrast, is a straight commercial play on a modest budget, and it is already in profit territory on theatrical alone.
What to watch next: whether “Primetime” holds through October, and whether the Encore run converts into opening-weekend momentum for “Avengers: Doomsday” in December.
