Looking at how much Avengers: Endgame‘s box office beats The Dark Knight’s own by makes the 2019 MCU movie’s financial results even more staggering. 2019’s major Marvel blockbuster was naturally a huge deal for the MCU timeline, and remains as such to this day, serving as a testament to what’s possible for superhero films in multiple ways.
Not only does Avengers: Endgame manage to tie together a huge number of stories and arcs into one satisfying movie, it also broke new ground in terms of its box office results. The sheer magnitude of its success is ever more clear after comparing it to one of the superhero genre’s first major box office success stories.
It’s No Secret Avengers: Endgame’s Box Office Is Huge
As the biggest movie in the entire MCU – and arguably the entire history of superhero movies altogether – it’s no surprise that Avengers: Endgame did well financially. If anything, Avengers: Endgame did so well that it’s hard to ground its box office results in a way that truly puts them in perspective, since its takings are so enormous.
Avengers: Endgame‘s worldwide box office came to a colossal $2.7 billion (as per The Numbers), making it one of the biggest of all time. Indeed, Avengers: Endgame‘s results also bestow it the тιтle of the second highest-grossing movie in history, coming in at just over $200 million less than Avatar and its own $2.9 billion results (via Box Office Mojo).
As such, it’s borderline impossible to overstate the significance of Avengers: Endgame and the way it demonstrated the financial heights the superhero genre is capable of. That said, comparing the film’s box office results to another genre-defining release helps to put things in more context.
Comparing Avengers: Endgame’s Box Office To The Dark Knight’s Shows Just How Colossal Its Results Really Are
The Dark Knight is still one of the most genre-defining superhero movie released to date. Christian Bale’s Batman defined one of the biggest superheroes of all time in a major way, bringing the character and his mythos into the modern day with a more grounded take on the lore that clearly influenced many other superhero films going forward.
Unsurprisingly, given Batman Begins established the popularity of this version of the character – and The Dark Knight set up Batman against his most popular nemesis, the Joker – The Dark Knight saw some considerable financial success. In fact, The Dark Knight is the first superhero movie to have surpᴀssed the $1 billion mark.
With 2008’s The Dark Knight making just over $1 billion in its worldwide box office (as per The Numbers and Box Office Mojo), its results were a huge deal for the superhero genre, and foreshadowed 2012’s $1+ billion results for The Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises. This makes it all the more interesting to compare with Avengers: Endgame.
Though The Dark Knight proved that superhero movies could reach these kinds of box office heights, the movie’s financial results are still a long way off Avengers: Endgame‘s own. Indeed, when compared directly, Avengers: Endgame‘s worldwide box office is over double The Dark Knight‘s own.
At $2.7 billion, Avengers: Endgame‘s box office is $300 million off being three times The Dark Knight‘s results.
Given The Dark Knight is still to this day one of the superhero genre’s highest-grossing films, the fact Endgame‘s box office is not far off triple the 2008 movie’s own puts things in some clear – if somewhat intense – context. While intense, this does make sense given the backdrop behind both movies.
How Avengers: Endgame’s Box Office Managed To Be Over Double The Dark Knight’s Own
The Dark Knight‘s box office is still an undeniably huge feat, especially because it paved the way for so many other superhero movies to reach similar heights. However, it’s also this exact thing that arguably plays a role in the movie making what it did and no higher, since the superhero genre’s cinematic strength hadn’t been tested as much here as it had by Endgame.
That said, it’s also worth noting that the two movies had substantially different build-up times in their respective series. The Dark Knight was the second installment in Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, and as such was only set up by Batman Begins. Comparatively, Endgame had over a decade of MCU build-up.
With Avengers: Endgame being the finale of sorts of the Infinity Saga – and the culmination of over 20 movies building up to this point in the MCU timeline – it’s easy to see how the 2019 movie built such a colossal result. This is especially true given Endgame was a huge movie for all of the MCU’s heroes, rather than one alone.
That same concept would also explain why The Dark Knight Rises made slightly more than The Dark Knight‘s own box office results, as people were that bit more invested in seeing the conclusion to the trilogy in much the same sense. However, that doesn’t stop The Dark Knight from being an important part of superhero movie history, much as Avengers: Endgame itself is.
