'Star Wars' Passes the Box-Office Torch to 'Avengers: Infinity War'
With "Avengers: Infinity War," Marvel is now once again the record holder for the biggest opening weekend in box-office history. "Star Wars" and Lucasfilm President Kathy Kennedy published a note on social media to mark the occasion, completing the circle from back in 2015 when Marvel first passed the torch to "Jurassic World."
The message went up on the official "Star Wars" Twitter account on Monday, April 30, as a nice congratulatory note to Marvel for taking the box-office crown with their biggest crossover event to date. The post came with a photo of a lightsaber being passed on like a baton to the waiting hand of Iron Man.
"From a Galaxy far far away... to Earth's Mightiest Heroes CONGRATULATIONS On the biggest opening weekend in history! From Kathy and everyone at Lucasfilm!" the handwritten note on the photo said.
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The previous record holder, "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," took the top spot in December of 2015 by raking in a total of $248 million in opening weekend sales at the time. This past weekend, "Avengers: Infinity War" blew past that by taking in $357.7 million in opening weekend sales in the domestic market alone, as Cinema Blend pointed out.
"Star Wars" first got the torch from "Jurassic World" by surpassing the latter, when "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" beat the "Jurassic Park's" much-awaited sequel and its $208.8 million opening weekend record.
At the time, it was producer Frank Marshall's turn to hand it over to Lucasfilm, which he did on Twitter by having the iconic T-Rex placing a gold medal on the robot BB8.
"Universal Pictures, Steven, Frank and Colin congratulate 'Star Wars The Force Awakens' on the Biggest Opening Weekend in Galactic History," the rest of the text on the congratulatory poster read, as posted in December of 2015.
It was a distinction that "Jurassic World" won just a few months earlier, too, from none other than Marvel.
In summer of 2015, "Jurassic World" came out and trampled all over the record held by "The Avengers" in 2012, when the first ensemble superhero movie from Marvel took in $207.4 million in opening weekend tickets.
At the time, it was Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige who took a moment to congratulate "Jurassic World" on its new record, via social media, of course.
It was an amusing photo of the "Avengers" cast looking on as a T-Rex looms over them, with Owen (Chris Pratt) riding on top of it. The iconic dinosaur has also somehow taken hold of Thor's hammer as well.
"Marvel Studios congratulates 'Jurassic World on being the new opening weekend KING!" the text on the picture said.
Now that Marvel has the record back, it now comes full circle as "Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom" now tries to take the crown back this coming June 22.
