Avengers: Endgame marks the culmination of what is arguably Hollywood’s greatest ever storyline, one which began with the release of Iron Man more than a decade ago and has captured the imagination of a generation ever since. This blockbuster has broken several records in the past few months which include – the highest-grossing worldwide opening weekend, highest admissions in the UAE, highest trailer views within 24 hours and the longest runtime in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).
The unprecedented anticipation surrounding this film has led to exceptional box office numbers.
Highest-Grossing Worldwide Opening Weekend
As announced by Disney, Avengers: Endgame pulled in an estimated $1.2 billion in worldwide box office in its opening weekend – effortlessly smashing the record of $640.5 million done by Avengers: Infinity War which released last year. The figure makes this star-studded movie the first film in history to surpass $1 billion in ticket sales in its debut weekend – creating a new benchmark in the world of cinema.
Highest UAE Admissions
With over 485k admissions, Avengers: Endgame broke records in the UAE for having the highest admissions in the first four days since its release (Wednesday 24th April – Saturday 27th April 2019), beating the record held by The Fate of the Furious (2017) by 39%.
Last year, Avengers: Infinity War ran for a total of 23 weeks in the UAE and did over 730,00 admissions, making it the No. 1 movie in UAE’s ‘Top 10 Movies of 2017’. Avengers: Endgame is most likely to garner a larger lifetime admission figure of close to 750k admissions in the UAE.
As per Gulf News, a Disney source confirmed that Avengers: Endgame released across 300 screens and has collected Dh26.4 million since its opening day. A well-placed UAE cinema source also stated that the 22nd film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe recorded well over 500k admissions across the first five days of its screening, becoming the biggest film to ever release in the country.
As of May 7th 2019, the movie has done over Dh40 million at UAE box office.
VOX Cinemas has also confirmed Endgame’s record run since its opening. As per a spokesperson from VOX, “Avengers: Endgame broke our record for advance ticket sales, more than doubling the number of tickets sold in our previous record for the film Baahubali 2. The movie contributed [towards] 80 per cent of the three-day weekend box office and the highest recorded admissions across VOX Cinemas on 26th April 2019.”
Reel Cinemas reported a ‘record-shattering’ opening weekend with the release of Avengers: Endgame, adding that it had doubled its box-office results over its prequal – which took six days to reach the same collection.
VOX Cinemas and Reel Cinemas, together with other cinema exhibitors across the Middle East – such as AMC Cinemas (KSA), screened the movie throughout the day (on a 24-hour basis) during the opening weekend to match the demand of ticket sales.
In addition to Dubai and Abu Dhabi, VOX Cinemas also confirmed that the film broke records in Muscat (Oman) and Kuwait.
Highest Trailer Views
According to Disney, the first official trailer of Avengers: Endgame – released on December 7th 2018, is the most viewed trailer across 24 hours in movie history with over 289 million views (tabulated across multiple platforms – YouTube, Facebook and Twitter). This anticipated trailer surpassed previous records set by Avengers: Infinity War of 230 million views and The Lion King teaser which racked up 224.6 million views.
Longest Runtime in the MCU
While most MCU movies are over two hours long, Avengers: Endgame is the first installment to cross the three-hours threshold with a runtime of 3 hours and 2 minutes – 22 minutes longer than Avengers: Infinity War.
In 2018, not only did Avengers: Infinity War top the worldwide box office, but it was also the only movie to hit more than the $2 Billion mark in worldwide box office revenue of 2018 – making it the fourth highest grossing movie of all time after Avatar (2009), Titanic (1997) and Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015). Avengers: Endgame is forecasted to be an even bigger hit than its prequel, and moreover, it has a chance of becoming the highest-grossing film of all time – on pace to dethrone Avatar.
Avengers: Endgame is expected to gather momentum as one of the most successful movies in history with fans already booking to watch the movie for the second time round.
Upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe films:
Spider-Man: Far from Home – 4th July 2019
Black Widow – 1st May 2020
The Eternals – 6th November 2020
Black Panther 2 – 12th February 2021
Shang-Chi – 7th May 2021
Doctor Strange 2 – 5th November 2021
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 – 6th May 2022
Sources: Screenrant, Hollywood Reporter, Gulf News, , The National, Arabian Business and CNBC
How would you describe advertising of this day and age in one word? Overwhelming?
Over a hundred years ago, marketeers could choose to communicate messages through two main mediums – newspaper and radio (the first mass media form of communication that offered near real-time delivery).
Today, there is an arsenal of channels available for marketeers to convey their message – newspaper, radio, magazine, television, digital and SMS, which has led to audiences becoming immune to relentless brand messaging.
In April 2017, Procter and Gamble, one of the world’s largest advertisers, blasted the ad industry for overwhelming consumers with advertising. “There’s too much crap,” said P&G’s chief brand officer Marc Pritchard, in a speech to the American Association of Advertising Agencies – in a transcript seen by CNBC.
“We bombard consumers with thousands of ads a day, subject them to endless load times, interrupt them with pop-ups and overpopulate their screens and feeds,” he said.
With audiences tuning out as a result of advertising overload, how can brands effectively reach their target audience in this day and age?
New research by MESH Experience – commissioned by SAWA, suggests that cinema is a powerful marketing platform, ideal for boosting brand influence.
The study captured and analyzed over 4,500 brand experiences from more than 1200 people across 3 countries using MESH’s proprietary ‘Real-time Experience Tracking’ approach. The categories covered in the study comprise Automotive, Finance, Services, FMCG and Electronics. Participating organizations included National CineMedia (USA), Screenvision Media (USA), Cineplex Media (Canada), and Weischer Media (Germany).
Information displayed in image courtesy MESH Experience
Below are key insights that analyses the role of cinema vs. other media:
As context for this study, and pointed out by a recent Deloitte study, it is no longer enough for brands to simply communicate features and benefits because people want to understand more about the brand’s social purpose, particularly younger people. We also know that people are overloaded with information and this probably explains why in this MESH study we saw that more than a third of paid media messages are self-reported as making people feel “neutral” towards the brand.
Information displayed in image courtesy MESH Experience
Consumer information overload is creating a challenge for brands wanting to convey more complex concepts to customers who are time-poor with less attention to give.
The study conducted by MESH Experience discovered that the cinema environment delivers the greatest proportion of positive brand experiences vs. any other media with 2 out of 3 experiences being positive and virtually no negative experiences.
Information displayed in image courtesy MESH Experience
Information displayed in image courtesy MESH Experience
And this emotional engagement, where people spontaneously tell us their experience is positive, is leading to much deeper advertising comprehension:
Spontaneous descriptions for cinema brand experiences generated a word count that was 20% longer than those for online experiences and 12% longer than for TV.
Information displayed in image courtesy MESH Experience
These comments conveyed detailed product descriptions as well as depth of emotion.
Information displayed in image courtesy MESH Experience
Cinema is generally perceived to be an awareness building medium, however, this study saw how brand experiences in cinema generate action:
Study participants who experienced brand messages in Cinema were 43% more likely to feel inspired to find out more about the brand vs. brand experiences with other media.
Information displayed in image courtesy MESH Experience
Information displayed in image courtesy MESH Experience
And the depth of a cinema brand experience makes people feel 50% more connected to others which can lead to conversation, and we see is a key driver of brand consideration.
Information displayed in image courtesy MESH Experience
There is a direct relationship between building emotional connections and establishing brand recall value, and cinema advertising allows brands to craft concrete and solid brand images in the minds of their consumers. Creating brand recall is the crucial element required in pushing sales and driving revenue.
Cinema advertising allows brands to paint a picture on a larger canvas, deliver a story with a louder voice, and communicate a message with more focused attention – all of which combine to make it the only Superhero among all advertising mediums.
Fiona Blades, President and Chief Experience Officer, MESH Experience commented “What we have discovered is that cinema has the power to penetrate deeper to connect brands to people. Even if the same creative is shown repeatedly in another medium, it may never hit the high notes of one cinema viewing. This shows the vital role that cinema can play in a brand’s media mix. And is why, when you add cinema to other media, such as TV and online, it turbocharges the impact on brand consideration.”
Cheryl Wannell, CEO, SAWA, continued “As an industry we believe in creating trustworthy environments for advertisers to communicate in. What better place to help customers understand a brand’s purpose than Cinema. This research once again validates the strength of the Cinema medium as viable choice in any campaign especially when trying to engage the hard to reach demographics of Millennials and Generation Z.”
As a result of these initial findings, a second phase is already in the works for 2019.
Motivate Val Morgan is a full member of SAWA (Global Cinema Advertising Association)
Sources: SAWA, MESH Experience, CNBC, Research News Live and On Digital Marketing
