Avengers: Endgame made a heroic return to the box office during a crowded weekend that saw Resident Evil race to No. 2 despite strong competition from Brad Pitt‘s Heart of the Beast and Robert Pattinson‘s Primetime. Meanwhile, DreamWorks Animation’s Forgotten Island got a bit lost in the shuffle.
Marvel Studios‘ 2019 blockbuster headed back to 3,060 North American screens with Avengers Endgame: Encore, grossing $26 million to top the domestic chart. With an additional $60 million internationally, Endgame: Encore’s $86 million global haul marked the No. 2 worldwide rerelease ever, behind only 2012’s Titanic 3D rerelease. Around 52 percent of its domestic sum for this weekend came from Infinity Vision screens, the newly launched certification for premium large format theaters.
Disney’s rerelease includes unreleased footage and an exclusive look at Marvel Studios’ Avengers: Doomsday, which continues to build momentum ahead of its Dec. 18 release. During its initial run, Joe and Anthony Russo’s Endgame launched in April 2019 to a record-setting opening weekend of $1.2 billion globally. It went on to claim No. 2 on the all-time worldwide chart with a total run of $2.7 billion.
Overall, an array of new wide releases helped the total domestic frame to a total of around $122.3 million, marking a 10.6 percent jump from last weekend and up 58.5 percent from last year’s equivalent weekend.
Sony’s Resident Evil still has teeth at second place, collecting around $23.3 million domestically in its sophomore frame as it crossed $100 million. Starring Austin Abrams, director Zach Cregger’s reboot of the video game property is set to decline around 60 percent to bring its North American sum to $103.4 million. It added $27 million internationally.
Starring Brad Pitt as a Special Forces officer stranded with his combat dog in the wilderness, Paramount Pictures’ Heart of the Beast notched around $20 million domestically for the weekend from 3,400 North American locations. The studio is encouraged by its $30.1 million international take, seeing that strong reviews and word of mouth helped the overseas interest for a story that might have been assumed to be more appealing to American audiences.
Earning an A- CinemaScore from audiences, director David Ayer’s $82 million-budgeted movie stands at an 87 score from Rotten Tomatoes reviewers. THR critic Frank Scheck wrote that it “packs a surprising emotional punch.”
Robert Pattinson stars as journalist Chris Hansen in A24’s Primetime, with the original crime drama getting an impressive start, collecting roughly $19.1 million from 2,800 North American theaters. Earning a B CinemaScore, director Lance Oppenheim’s feature proved popular with Gen Z, as around 69 percent of the audience was under age 30.
Primetime has a $15 million production budget and holds an 87 percent approval rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes. In his review for The Hollywood Reporter, chief film critic David Rooney called it a “peak Sleaze TV rerun, for whoever wants it.” Merritt Wever, Skyler Gisondo and Phoebe Bridgers also star.
Rounding out the top five is DreamWorks Animation’s Forgotten Island, with the Universal Pictures release getting off to a slower start with $12.8 million domestically for the weekend. Earning an A CinemaScore, the original animated feature looks to take advantage of the lack of prominent family releases until early November.
The $80 million-budgeted film focuses on two friends magically transported to an island rooted in Philippine mythology. Featuring the voices of H.E.R., Liza Soberano and Dave Franco, Forgotten Island holds a 94 percent critic approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with Scheck writing for THR that it is “an exciting original.”
Among specialty releases, the Mahershala Ali-led Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother pulled in $900,000 for Orion Pictures from six locations in New York and Los Angeles for an average of $33,100 per screen. Writer-director Bassam Tariq’s movie centers on Ali as a religious hitman grappling with his wife’s death.
During the week, Universal Pictures became the first studio to surpass $5 billion at the 2026 global box office. The Odyssey, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie and Michael were among the hits helping Universal to reach this milestone for the first time since 2017.
Next weekend marks the opening for such high-profile releases as Warner Bros.’ Tom Cruise-led Digger and Amazon MGM Studios’ Verity, starring Anne Hathaway and Dakota Johnson.
This story was first published on Sept. 26 at 9:01 a.m.
